
Class _r 2W~i 

Book.£3.-W«_ 



DEWITT&SNELLINC 

UtW BOOKSELLERS 



PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 



Historical and Personal 



A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION 



OF THE 



INDIANA COLONY 



its establishment on the rancho san pascual and its evolution into 

The City of Pasadena. 

including a brief story of san gabriel mission, the story of the 

boom and its aftermath, and of the political 

changes and personages involved in 

this transformation. 

Churches, Societies, Homes, Etc. 

BROUGHT DOWN TO DATE AND 
FULLY ILLUSTRATED 



BY 

J . W ?^W O O D 
1917 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 
All Rig Jits Reserved 



F&1 




2^?o/£ 



7 



7 



INDEX TO CONTENTS 



PAGE 

FOREWORD-DEDICATION 9 

CHAPTER I. By Way of Introduction— The coming of the Padre— 

The Mission San Gabriel 15 

CHAPTER II. Don Gaspar de Portola, the soldier of fortune— The 
native Indians— The pipe of peace— Something about the friars- 
Establishing the Missions— San Gabriel Arcangel— Christianizing 
the Indian 21 

CHAPTER III. Dona Eulalia Perez de Guillen— A woman of many 

virtues who lived long— The Rancho San Pascual 30 

CHAPTER IV. Col. Manuel Garfias, a soldier of fortune, and our 

first lady chatelaine— Love and war 33 

CHAPTER V. The Rancho San Pascual— The new owner and his 

fortunes r 38 

CHAPTER VI. Chronological Succession op Titles to the San Pas- 
cual Ranch— The Wilson and the Shorb families 43 

CHAPTER VII. As It Was in the Beginning— The Indiana Colony 
makes a start — The memorable 27th of January, 1874 — The 
passing of the Don 47 

CHAPTER VIII. Those Who Were Present- The "first families" of 

Pasadena 50 

CHAPTER IX. The Genesis op the Indiana Colony— The origin of 
the "California Colony of Indiana"— Starting to spy out the land 
—The organization of the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association— 
Purchase of the San Pascual Ranch 53 

CHAPTER X. Getting Busy in the Colony— The first house- 
Planting — Getting water — The affairs of the association 61 

CHAPTER XI. Some Pests!— The cunning gopher, the pestiferous 

grasshopper and other friendly neighbors— The coyote 74 

CHAPTER XII. Progress— A school and a teacher— The San Pascual 

School District founded— List of colonists, 1874-1875 80 

CHAPTER XIII. Choosing a Name for the Colony— Origin of the 

name "Pasadena" and to whom it is due 85 

CHAPTER XIV. A Sermon Is Preached and a church is organized, 
the First Presbyterian— Another church established, the First 
Methodist— Going forward 88 

3 



4 INDEX TO CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XV. Neighbors— The Lake Vineyard Colony— Its first 
settlers— A village center begun, and a postofnce— Settling on 
"dry" lands 92 

CHAPTER XVI. Settlements About Pasadena— The Painter & Ball 

Tract, Altadena, Oak Knoll and San Rafael. . . , 100 

CHAPTER XVII. More Progress— A postmaster, and a scholarly mail 

carrier 10S 

CHAPTER XVIII. Social and Fraternal amenities in the Colony— 

The first wedding— Williams Hall is built Ill 

CHAPTER XIX. Histrionic— Characters and properties— Williams 

Hall and its historic memories 118 

CHAPTER XX. The Hunter and the Hunted— Sports and sports- 
men—The wild cat hunt— Some game— Frank Lowe's bear adven- 
ture, and others 124 

CHAPTER XXI. Some Business Doing— Two citrus fairs— A stage 

line— Two hotels built— End of the first decade 136 

CHAPTER XXII. The Boom— Sale of school lots— Advent of a R. R. 
— Millionaires of a day — An orgy in real estate— A city in two 
years— Facts and figures— A chapter of interest 144 

CHAPTER XXIII. Busted!— The boom collapses— The aftermath 

with a thousand headaches 174 

CHAPTER XXIV. Renaissance— The funeral of the boom corpse- 
Forgetting and going to work— A peaceful interval 186 

CHAPTER XXV. Incorporation— Pasadena becomes a city— Candi- 
dates for office— Organization of the city and official roster to 1902 190 

CHAPTER XXVI. The Municipal Baby growing too big for its 
clothes— New charter urged— Charter beaten — Another attempt 
and a charter adopted— A mayor and council 201 

CHAPTER XXVII. Pasadena's First Mayor— M. H. Weight, his 
appointments— Contention and final agreement— Two parks ac- 
quired. 

Mayor Vedder— Weight defeated for a second term— Municipal water 
voted— Other things accomplished by Mayor Vedder. 

Mayor Waterhouse— Defeat of Slavin— Municipal water bonds de- 
clared invalid— The voters stirred up— Municipal light voted. 

Mayor Earley— Thomas Earley defeats Waterhouse— Earley makes 
campaign for municipal water— Bonds defeated twice— The Earley 
administration. 

William Thum Elected Mayor over R. L. Metcalf— Another cam- 
paign for municipal water— It is accomplished— Other accomplish- 
ments by Thum 207 



INDEX TO CONTENTS 5 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XXVIII. A Commission Form of Government Adopted 
—Primary election— Five commissioners elected— Assignment to 
official departments— Another election— Defeat of Metcalf and 
election of Creller— Election of Newell over Loughery— Call for a 
manager form of government — Defeated— A Board of Freeholders 
— New charter proposed— Discontent of those favoring the city 
manager system 217 

CHAPTER XXIX. Whisky vs. Water— Pasadena's first saloon— The 
issue between factions and the end of the saloon— Blind pigs and 
ordinances pertaining thereto— Incorporation is the result— Ordi- 
dinance 45, and others— Charter amended— Contest on Amend- 
ments Nos. 10 and 11 222 

CHAPTER XXX. The Newspaper Game— Pasadena's first newspaper 
and its fortunes— The Union and the Star — The way of the jour- 
nalist is hard 231 

CHAPTER XXXI. Banks and Bankers— Pasadena's first bank and 
its founders— Banks and more banks— Trust companies and sav- 
ings institutions 245 

CHAPTER XXXII. Hotels— Pasadena's first hotel, the Lake Vine- 
yard House— Isaac Banta— Two new hotels in one year— The Ray- 
mond—The Maryland— Linnard, the Napoleon of bonifaces— A 
hotel triumvirate 257 

CHAPTER XXXIII. A Fire and a Fire Department— Organization 

of a fire company— Its present status 272 

CHAPTER XXXIV. The Public Library— Its beginning— Its strug- 
gles—Acquired by the city— Its growth— Appointment of Miss 
Russ— Mrs. Dubois' promotion work 276 

CHAPTER XXXV. Schools and Colleges— Many public schools... 286 

CHAPTER XXXVI. Churches and Religious Denominations— 
Beginnings of the first church— Rev. Mosher and his good work — 
(Outline history of Pasadena's religious bodies, etc. 307 

CHAPTER XXXVII. Transportation— The first railroad-The Los 
Angeles and San Gabriel Valley R. R.— Jewett, Washburn and 
Crank, railroad builders— Sold to the Sante Fe— Street car lines— 
The Terminal and Southern Pacific enters— The Pacific Electric, 
etc 329 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Water Question— Story of water-Dif- 
ferences between the companies settled— Harmony and develop- 
ment 354 

CHAPTER XXXIX. Municipal WATER-Vote to purchase all com- 
panies—The vote declared illegal— The purchase finally accom- 
plished—Many improvements 

CHAPTER XL. Municipal Light 374 



6 INDEX TO CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XLI. The Postoffice— Story down to date 378 

CHAPTER XLIL The Board of Trade— Organization of a body of 
usefulness— A mighty factor in the progress of the city— Things 
accomplished— City Planning Association— Merchants Association 384 

CHAPTER XLIII. PARKS-Library Park- Central Park— Brookside— 

—La Pintoresca— Arroyo Park— Busch's Gardens 392 

CHAPTER XLIV. Just Politics— Who's who in politics— Some of 
those who have been and some of those who are— The Americus 
Club— Rise of the Progressive, Hiram the Great 397 

CHAPTER XLV. Pasadena's Historic Fete— The Tournament of 
Roses— Its origin and its originators— Part played by the Valley 
Hunt Club— Its growth and purpose 437 

CHAPTER XLVI. Fraternal and Aid Organizations— Charitable 
and benevolent societies— The Red Cross, Navy League, Y. M. 
C. A., Y. W. C. A., etc 444 

CHAPTER XL VII. The Grand Army of the Republic— Company I 

— Woman's Relief Corps, etc 459 

CHAPTER XLVIIL Clubs— The Overland Club, Twilight, Cauldron, 

Shakespeare Club and others 471 

CHAPTER XLIX. Business— Some industries— Cannery, manufac- 
turing companies and employers of labor 481 

CHAPTER L. Trades Organizations and Unions 492 

CHAPTER LI. Hospitals— Hygienic problems— Sewer Farm— Incin- 
erator 495 

CHAPTER LII. The Alps of Pasadena— A look from the top of the 

world— Glimpse of a thousand peaks 500 

CHAPTER LIII. Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory— Star gazing— A 

peep into vast distances 507 

CHAPTER LIV. The Canyon Trails— The canyons near Pasadena- 
Mountain parks 514 

CHAPTER LV. The Rain and the Seasons— Climate 524 

CHAPTER LVI. Forest Fires and Reforestration 538 

CHAPTER LVII. Some Cognate Facts Worth Knowing— The Old 

Mill 541 

CHAPTER LVIII. South Pasadena- Our sister city 549 

CHAPTER LIX. The Beginners— Those who started first lines in 

business 556 

CHAPTER LX. The Final Words *. 559 



2Det»ication 

To The Pioneer 



WHOSE HAPPY FORESIGHT AND STEADFAST PURPOSE 

FOUNDED A FAIR COLONY, AND MADE POSSIBLE 

THIS HISTORY, THESE CHRONICLES ARE 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY 



The Author 
Pasadena, Cal., 1917. 




FOREWORD 

CELEBRATED man once said that "History is only 
a recital of lies." Another, that "History was a 
lie that had been agreed upon." Now, if these 
men's words must be accepted at their own reck- 
oning, how dubious one must feel when he seeks, by 
printed page, to lay open the tombs that hold the secrets of 
the past ! 

Rather do I prefer the greater tolerance of a better sage 
who more aptly said that * ' History is the memory of a race 
and is to be written.' ' You and I, kind reader, must agree, 
if we will travel amicably through this volume, that it is a 
veracious record and must be accepted as such. 

For indeed, the labors and the patience required need at 
least that much confidence to make the task worth while. 

Had I the affluence of imagination and the poetic vocabu- 
lary of my friend John McOroarty, I could have made this 
reading more entertaining, I know. But in these plain hands 
history must have it limitations — at least while its subjects 
survive ! So I cling to facts, dull and prosy as they may be, 
oft desiring a wider horizon to soar and entertainment to seek. 

This history was "wished on me" by well intentioned 
friends who believed in its need. Really, I fear they may 
find some disappointment at its limitations, for I think they 
expected an encyclopedia of events. The most difficult task 
that confronted me was not what to include, but what to omit ! 

Pasadena has had no exciting epochs — barring the boom 
period — no events of wide interest; just the quiet, forward 
moving life that evolved a fine city from simple beginnings 
and a plain people. 

The reader will note that these pages have not given much 
space to personal eulogies. This may disappoint some who 
like this sort of writing. But it usually looks suspicious in 
local history and invites criticism — unjust, often. And then 
how could I, with due discretion and fair discrimination, be 
entirely honest ! Rather permit a future obituary to record 
the shining virtues of these distinguished citizens. For my- 
self, I will content me to attest their qualities and their merits 

9 



10 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

in a recital of their accomplishments — so one may read as 
he runs. 

Nevertheless, I cannot refrain from saying here a good 
word for a very few of the many who gave me such advice 
and assistance as was within their power. Particularly and 
most important, was the word that renewed oft flagging cour- 
age to continue my sometimes faltering journey. 

First, to Charles H. Prisk, who gave me access to old Star 
files, without which this accomplishment would have been nigh 
impossible ; Heman Dyer, who was indispensable ; and Harry 
A. Huff, valuable. To T. P. Lukens, to John McDonald, to 
C. D. Daggett, to W. H. Yedder, to C. V. Sturtevant and to 
N* G. Felker, I am especially under obligations. May Allah 
compensate them ! And there are others who did their bit. 

And to Doctor Beid's History — the wellspring of early 
facts — I am able to receive that return for once similar oppor- 
tunity — in a limited way — which through certain old files of 
papers, was vouchsafed him. Well, it has had its pleasures, 
has this task, for it has brought me close again to the golden 
past, when life was young, when the fragrance of nature was 
shed in its unalloyed abundance over this beautiful valley, 
when the soft breezes rustled through bending groves, and 
when the odor of the sage-brush and wild flowers mingled, 
and filled the nostrils with delight. 

Years from now, another historian will take up the pen 
where I have laid it down. Then, perhaps, all these actors 
will have rendered up their account and passed upon that long 
road, nevermore to turn back. He may be certain that 

"Not one returns to tell of the road, 
Which to discover we must travel, too." 

If this narrative will help him in his labors, that will be 
satisfaction in a large way to this writer. 

I finish this work with relief and with regret — relief that 
the onerous task is over, regret at the interruption of friendly 
dalliance with a loved theme. I must, before parting, crave 
the one favor — that I am absolved from egotism in writing 
these annals in the first person. I did so deliberately and 
for two reasons. First, because it is the pleasantest form 
of narrative; second, because I was thus able to continue 
an intimate fellowship with old friends all the journey 
through. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 11 

Finally, then, if I have given my patient reader pleasure 
enough, interest enough, and information enough, to sustain 
him throughout these pages and unto the very end of the 
book — that will bring me content! If not, there is no 
recourse, for — 

"The moving -finger writes, and having writ 
Moves on; nor all your poetry and wit, 

Shall hire it back to cancel half a line, 
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it." 

Most sincerely, 

The Author. 



BY WAY OF INTEODUCTION 




OME with me through this 
welcoming gate which 
stands open with beckon- 
ing invitation, and leads 
to busy thoroughfares, 
happy homes, and lovely gardens 
decked with fragrant flowers. 

Come with me through green 
lawns, and over sunlit paths whose 
flowering borders lead to rose bow- 
ered pergolas and secluded retreats. 

Come where the golden sunshine 
sifts in chastened floods upon smiling 
hill and valley, and fills the land with 
its happy radiance. 

Come with me and listen to the 
mocking-bird singing its celestial 
paeans and everlasting melodies. 

For I am leading you to a splen- 
did city, resting at the feet of mighty 
mountains whose peaks pierce the profound depths of 
benignant skies. 

I am shoAving you a city of clean, spacious avenues, of 
picturesque bungalows and spacious villas, set in Elysian 
gardens where soft zephyrs play in amorous dalliance. 

And I am recording in these pages, the history that made 
these things possible to us, and to those who follow us. And 
to the Pioneer I am giving a just mead of praise for his share 
in them. 




A GLIMPSE WITHIN 



The pioneers of Pasadena were not heroic adventurers 
who sought to face death by flood or field; or who chose, by 
preference, hazards and privations in that quest whereby they 
undertook to lay the foundations for new homes in a new land. 

No Homeric epic may be written upon enduring tablets 
to note for them deeds of valor or recount for them strange 

13 



14 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

adventures. Nor may minstrel sing of hairbreadth 'scapes 
by land and sea — to their glorification. For they were aver- 
age people ; or — we prefer to believe — just a little better than 
the average, and, consequently, too unpretending to acclaim, 
or allow to be acclaimed, the modest labors which resulted in 
the founding of this city. Therefore, I will refrain, in these 
pages, the indulgence in panegyrics or in over praise. Let 
the reader observe, as he rambles through them, the mere 
mention of deeds that were performed by these unassuming 
makers of history and construe them in his own generous 
way. In leading up to the actual historical achievements 
concerning Pasadena, the writer, in order to give a proper 
record, finds himself compelled to go back a long way into 
the past, to link together the important chain of events leading 
up to the foundation of the Indiana Colony, which, in time, 
became Pasadena. So, out of regard for chronological veri- 
ties, I have seen fit to include a brief history of the Mission 
"San Gabriel Arcangel," one of the finest specimens of Cali- 
fornia missions now existing, and thus make a perfect 
connecting link. 

The excuse for this, while sufficient in itself, lies also in 
the fact of its neighborly interest and does not need further 
apology. 



CHAPTER I 

San Gabriel Arcangel 



WHEREIN IS BRIEFLY WRIT- 
TEN THE STORY OF 
CALIFORNIA 'S FOURTH 
FOUNDED MISSION AND 
SOMETHING CONCERN- 
ING THE PADRES WHO 
FOUNDED IT AND THE 
GOOD WORKS THEY PER- 
FORMED. 




MISSION SAN GABRIEL, Founded 1771 



THE MISSION GARDEN 



MRS. G. PACEARD-DU BOIS 

Where once the padres walked in days gone by, 

At peace, within this quiet, cool retreat, 
The great white sea-gulls, circling far, and high, 

The ocean coming, going at their feet, 
Is silence now. The roses bloom and die 

With but the soft, salt breeze to breathe their sweet. 

On crumbled wall the lizard basks in heat, 
And, far away, and clear, the curlews cry. 
Enter. The spell of time is over all. 
What wonder if beneath the palm trees tall 
A shadowy form be seem, a footfall heard, 
Or breathes again at dusk some whispered word 
From out that Old World pastf The padre y s sleep 
Beneath the arches gray is calm and deep. 

15 




16 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

OOKS, and other books, have been written about 
California missions; about the good padres who 
founded them; the noble enterprise they engaged 
in, and the meaning and success of that great 
crusade. 
The missions, themselves, are, in most cases, but reminis- 
cences of a heroic purpose ; and their architectural beauties— 
unique and striking — will be forgotten soon, unless methods 
are continued to preserve them from the devastating tooth of 
time. Many now are but heaps of brick and adobe — melan- 
choly reminders of their day and plan; but, thanks to the 
Landmarks Club of Southern California, efforts to protect 
and preserve some of them have been successful; and some, 
at least, will remain fitting monuments to the self-sacrificing 
efforts of their founders. 

If we glance at a map of California whereon is set down 
the "El Camino Beal," we behold a series of black dots, set 
apart, at more or less regular intervals, but following, in their 
general trend, the coast line from San Diego in the south to 
Sonoma in the north — a distance, altogether, of about seven 
hundred miles. These black dots are linked together by 8 
fine line, and one is reminded of a string of black beads, or 
if more poetic, a rosary, bound by gossamer strands woven 
by vagrant spider, who, in his meanderings, has affixed his 
tenuous cables at regular intervals as he strolled on his jour- 
ney. The slender cable is "El Camino Seal" — the "King's 
Highway," and the dots represent the missions of the holy 
fathers, those evangelizing places established by them in that 
romantic and eventful pilgrimage, through fertile valleys and 
over sunny mesas, when they laid the foundations of a lofty 
and sacred purpose. 

Over these Highways the King's soldiers journeyed; and, 
came with them, the Fathers of the Church, in quest of new 
realms where they might plant their gonfalons in the name 
of conquest and their Holy Cause. Over this route Serra 
and his brothers made well beaten paths, for they traveled 
it often ; and in token of remembrance, they scattered by the 
way, seed of the yellow mustard, thus bordering their path- 
ways with a golden token to guide the future traveler. And 
the while, it may be added, as they set the foundations of their 
missions, they also gave them well sounding names, bespeak- 
ing thus the protection of some good saint or other — for that 
was the custom of the time. As has been said — 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 17 

"To name them is to pray; 

For their names fulfill the chorus 
Of a thousand saints that o'er us 
Swing the censers night and day." 

The Mission San Gabriel lies south of the borders of 
Pasadena bnt three miles, in the old town of San Gabriel, now, 
alas, modernized and deprived forever of much of its once 
picturesque and sentimental glamour. Desiring to reach it, 
we, now, instead of as of yore making our pilgrimage by 
the Camino Eeal, go by modern trolley car, whose clamorous 
and rumbling wheels disperse the atmosphere of romance 
which in the past invested its thoroughfares. Long ago the 
pedestrian wended between low browed adobes, around whose 
thresholds clambered blooming Castilian roses over which 
betimes, passed sandal footed padres droning their litanies. 
From these casements once peered dark eyed senoritas who, 
half hid, listened to the strains of gallant troubadour as he 
breathed his ardour and his devoirs from the calle below. 
Earely, now, may be heard the enamored gallant, as in the 
old time ways. He may twang his guitar, and does so indeed, 
but it is in the more modern manner, reclining on the door 
step, on the piazza, or within the family walls, instead of 
under latticed window and scented bower with a f riendlymoon 
looking on. 

The modern street of San Gabriel — now traversed by 
noisy cars and ill smelling automobiles — was its chief calle in 
that time, and the Mission, that was begun before the liberty 
bell chimed its defiance to king and potentate, was the center 
of all activities — religious, social and commercial ; for within 
its walls were taught all of these principles upon which the 
mission enterprise was founded. The adobe of those days 
has, in most cases, given way to the more modern brick busi- 
ness place, or the frame bungalow. Happily, however, some 
remnants yet remain of the days before came the Gringo,* 
the "Yanqui" invader. 

When the Gringo came with his Yankee innovations, the 
old atmosphere departed forever, the glamour and the pictur- 



* Charles F. Lummis says " Gringo' ' is an old Spanish word, current in 
Spain a century before any English-speaking person ever saw Mexico. It is a 
corruption of "Griego," but was corrupted in Spain and not in this country, 
and not on account of the ' ' Tenderf eet ' ' who came to Mexico. It is recorder 
in Spanish dictionaries of 1878 and earlier. 



18 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

esque gave way before the material and practical money 
maker. Perhaps this was necessary for human progress : that 
the rattle and bang of railroads and the belching smoke of 
manufacturing plants displace the romantic and the senti- 
mental; yet the vanishing of a picturesque period and its 
people must, nevertheless, not be permitted to pass into the 
oblivion of forgetfulness without some record being made of 
that period and of that race. Therefore, let this history do 
its brief part, and its pages acclaim a noble cause, of which 
these mission walls stand signal reminders. 



When the padres invaded California for the purpose of 
establishing the Holy Cross among the aborigines, they found 
in them a simple people, living primitive and purposeless 
lives — a mere existence in fact — just as exist millions of other 
beings, more luckily born, upon this earth ; who live and pass 
through a process, then die, leaving no excuse as to why. 

To these Indians, living was a mere routine of lazy indul- 
gence. True, they sometimes engaged in the milder forms 
of the chase, when hunger compelled or primal inclinations 
prompted. They might sometimes bathe, if ablutions meant 
mere aquatic pleasures ; but not, usually, perhaps, in the desire 
for sanitation. They have been charged with having some 
kind of religion — a God to worship — by historians who 
endeavor to endow them with elevated characteristics and 
noble sentiments. Perhaps those Indians had some sort of 
creed, or belief — most Indians have — and the great Father 
or Spirit had a significance as deep and impressive to their 
simple minds as does the Christian God to a Christian race. 
For the primitive mind cannot contemplate great natural 
phenomena without being impressed by them, as mysteries 
ever will impress. The power that can send the sun on its 
daily course, cause thunder and rain and snow, must be a 
wonderful one indeed, hence should be worshiped. But these 
people had never before heard of the Christian's God. It 
behooved the Church to evangelize this untutored people and 
bring them into the fold. Thus, when the King of Spain was 
besought by the Fathers of the Church for the privilege of 
sending missionaries into the faraway California — so far 
that even its geography was unknown — there to engage in 
the rescue of souls — the monarch acceded with kingly gener- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 19 

osity: that is, he gave them the privilege they asked with 
the added injunction that if they fared successfully, they 
could help themselves to whatever of the domain that might 
be found necessary for their enterprise, and annex the same 
to the Holy Church. So it came to pass that these mission- 
aries came to the strange land, took generously of its domain 
and proceeded to instill into the ignorant Indian some new 
ideas of life — here and hereafter ; and also a system of living 
heretofore inconceivable to him. History has shown how suc- 
cessfully this was done; how the padres, with a practical 
comprehension of life, taught the Indian to labor in new 
ways; to till the soil; to sow and to harvest; to plant fruit- 
bearing trees, and to plant vines and make rare vintages 
from them. Cattle and sheep were also introduced into this 
new existence, to later become the backbone of California 
products, in their day. Besides these endeavors came 
instruction in household affairs, new methods of cooking. 
The tortilla, or frijole, was made known, perhaps, also, chile 
con came, to regale with gustatory delight the heretofore 
unepicurean tastes of the noble braves, whose stomachs were 
not yet educated beyond such horrific things as lizards and 
grasshoppers ! Moreover, they were taught exemplary habits 
and morals — a system of living in accordance with a higher 
existence. And in a measure they succeeded in their efforts, 
did these crusaders of the church, and where ordinary mortals 
might fail, they made their impress deep and strong. 
Whether the subjects also absorbed the spiritual instillations 
who can tell? But they conformed, in externals at least, to 
the priestly admonitions, whatever may have been the reserva- 
tion deep down in their primitive minds. 

No less than twenty-one missions, in all, were thus estab- 
lished in California, beginning with that of San Diego de 
Alcala, whose foundations were laid June 16th, 1769, and 
ending with the San Francisco Solano, at Sonoma, in 1823 — 
fifty-four years afterwards. 

As noted before, and as shown by proper maps, these 
missions are located, as a rule, a day's journey apart; a day's 
journey meaning in those times the distance possible by 
plodding, patient Fray, afoot ; or by mule attached to creaking 
1 ' carreta. ' ' So arranged, they afforded shelter and provender 
to wearied traveler at the end of each day's journey. Design- 
edly and with characteristic acumen, the missions were built 



20 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



in fertile valleys by pellucid streams where the arts of agri- 
culture could be carried on. They were their own sources 
of support and more ; and in due time the excess crops were 
conveyed on mule back or in "carreta" to markets — the camps 
of the soldiers, usually — and there sold at a good profit. 

Thus from Mission to Mission traveled the Missionary 
on his errand of civilization, or in the behest of commerce, 
and never wearied of his purpose. And so the "Camino 
Real," or King's Highway, was established. Over these old 
roads, even today, so well were they planned, the more modern 
automobile speeds, guided to its destination by the modern 
made Mission bells in miniature, recalling to the contempla- 
tive mind the trails and the trials of Fray Junipero Serra 
and his noble band of argonauts of the Church. 





CHAPTER II 

The Joueneys of Don Gaspae de Poetola 

"Once more I see PortoWs cross uplifting 
Above the setting sun; 
And past the headland, northward, slowly drifting 
The freighted galleon." 

|ON GASPAR DE PORTOLA was a man of arms 
and noted for his adventurous disposition. A few 
years ago the people of San Francisco celebrated 
his name, and conferred upon him much fame ; and 
the state of California has written into its calendar 
of holidays "Portola Day," in commemoration of his discov- 
ery of the bay and the sand dunes where the city of St. Francis 
was later built. Yet this discovery, and Portola's great fame, 
was brought about through an error. Either because of poor 
maps, poor judgment or good fortune, Portola, who was in 
reality in quest of the bay of Monterey, stumbled upon the 
Golden Gate and post-mortem renown. 

To Don Gaspar de Portola adventure was meat and sus- 
tenance. He loved romance, for the blood of the conquista- 
dore was in his veins. He had heard of California,* and had 
been sent to Baja California (Mexico) to take over the Jesuit 
missions. The Crown, being desirous of confiscating these 
properties, wished to expel their Jesuit founders. Coinci- 
dentally, Fray Junipero Serra desired to adopt these very 
Missions for his Franciscan brothers, and was engaged in 
this undertaking also. It is a matter of history, however, 
that, harsh as was the edict of the Crown, it was carried out 
by Portola with consideration and mercy. Portola had been 
commissioned Gobernador to give him authority in his work. 
His great ambition was to travel north into the land of Cali- 
fornia on a voyage of discovery. These ambitions fitted well 
into the plans of Junipero Serra, for this zealous missionary 

* The name California, or Kali-f ornia, is of obscure origin and meaning, but 
the commonly accepted and most satisfactory origin is that it was applied by 
an ancient writer of romance to a strange island in the Pacific, peopled by a 
singular people. At one time California was supposed to be an island and was 
so called by old time geographers. 

21 



22 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

desired to bring under the tutelage of the church the Indians 
that he had heard were there in great numbers. Thus, in the 
year 1768, we find Portola in Loreto, Baja California com- 
pleting his work with the Jesuits as magnanimously as the 
decree permitted. This business finally attended to, he ar- 
ranged to accompany Fray Juniper o on his journey. Portola 
and his leather coated troops, servants and Indian attendants, 
started on the first stage of his journey to San Diego, and 
after many hardships incident to such travel arrived there in 
due season. 

To Portola there was also another incentive more urgent 
than the establishment of Missions. Somewhere in the far 
north was a bay which was named Monterey by another 
explorer, who told wonderful things about it. He was desir- 
ous of seeing this bay for himself, and gathering some of the 
wonderful rich pearls, said to be lying thereabout in profu- 
sion, as trophies of his adventure. This was the incentive 
in his mind when he rendezvoused at San Diego with his little 
band of forty-four persons, in the year 1768. Some recent 
historians ascribe to one Jose de Galvez the glory of originat- 
ing the idea of establishing the California Missions; thus 
poaching from Junipero Serra his long enjoyed credit. Father 
Galvez had a history that spells romance from its beginning 
to its ending. It read from a shepherd boy in Spain, then 
to Minister to India, with the title of Marquis. From that 
far land to "New Spain' ' he traveled, and in conjunction with 
Fray Serra, established the civilization of the Church. At 
all events he is entitled to be considered an able auxiliary, at 
least, of Fray Junipero, the most illustrious of all priests in 
the annals of California Missions. 

After two weeks' rest and recuperation the band of Por- 
tola departed from San Diego on its new adventures. There 
were all told sixty soldiers, servants and guides. There were 
included several priests, among whom were Frays Crespi and 
Gomez, also Governor Fages, who had replaced Portola as 
Governor. Luckily, Fray Juan Crespi was the chronicler of 
this expedition, as he was of others of the kind, and to his 
imagination and sense of the beautiful and harmonious we 
owe the euphonious appellations which he thought fit to apply 
to the places he passed by, and saw, on these journeys. As 
the historian of these expeditions he conferred the dignity 
and sentiment they required. to raise them into romantic pil- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 23 

grimages. In this capacity he has related, in minute detail, 
the incidents of travel and the momentous occurrences and 
adventures attending them. We should thank him in our 
hearts for the musical and felicitous names he applied to the 
valleys, and peaks, and streams of our beloved State. True, 
he drew frequently upon the Saintly calendar for his nomen- 
clature, but who can deny the propriety and harmony of such 
names as Santa Margarita, San Felipe, Santa Barbara, or our 
own Los Angeles and San Gabriel, as compared with their 
Anglicized congeners! How regretful we are that another 
Fray Crespi could not have been present, with authority when 
some streets of Pasadena were baptized; for then we might 
have been spared such discordant and tuneless examples as 
Worcester, Wapallo, Muscatan or Punahou ! 

But, if Portola 's expedition failed to find Monterey bay, 
it did discover a bay of far greater significance in its future 
importance to the world; for on November 7th, 1769, the 
beautiful portals of the Golden Gate were disclosed to the 
soldiers ' gaze, and the bay of San Fransicco was first seen by 
white men. With this discovery, Portola's name was written 
into the pages of California's history. Portola did not know 
then of the vastly superior importance that this discovery had 
above mere Monterey, for once again he essayed to find the 
object of his original quest. In April, 1770, on his second 
journey northward, he and his little band for the second time 
traversed the Valley of the San Gabriel, and upon a fine day 
arrived and found surcease from travel under the oaks and 
sycamores of South Pasadena. 

They found Indians in plenty, living in their primitive 
villages, and it is said that Portola smoked the pipe of friendly 
confidence with the head man, or Chief, one Hahamovic, who 
lived with his followers on the land where, seventy-five years 
later, was built the hacienda of Colonel Manuel Garfias and 
which is now the property of George W. Glover. It was the 
time of the year when blooming poppies blazed the slopes and 
mesas with their golden bannerets, and it was this flaming 
glory that begat the name " Copra de Ora," or cloth of gold, 
which sailors out at sea forty miles away, conferred upon the 
splendid sight. But these soldiers of Portola gave to this 
particular land the name which it afterward, in part, retained. 
It was on an Easter Sunday they arrived, and because of this, 
and upon beholding the striking beauty of the blooming pop- 



24 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

pies, they applied the term "La Sabinalla de San Pascual," 
"The Grand Altar Cloth of Holy Easter" — hence it was that 
the Eancho San Pascnal received its name. Portola and his 
followers were perhaps the first white men ever seen by these 
Indians, and for that reason, and also for the fact that it was 
then that the desirability of this place for a Mission germi- 
nated, it later became the domain of the Mission San Gabriel. 
On the bank of the Arroyo Seco, near where stood the 
famous Garfia's hacienda, stands a fine spreading oak which 
has seen the suns of centuries. Upon the trunk of this tree 
can be faintly seen the form of a cross, now nearly overgrown 
and obliterated. It is given upon the best legendary authority 
that this cross was cut upon a day when the first religious 
services were held in this valley, these services being held 
beneath this spreading oak, the cross being made by one 
of the soldiers of Portola upon the visit above referred to. 
Just a few yards away is the "Garfia's spring," where the 
family sought libations on occasion; where children played, 
and romance dwelt, long years ago. It was in September, 
1771, that another expedition, consisting of ten soldiers, some 
muleteers and servants, in command of two priests, Fray 
Pedro Cambon and Angel Somero, traveled north from San 
Diego and arrived in a few days on the banks of the Eio 
Temblores, a branch of the San Gabriel. Here it was decided 
was the place to establish a Mission, the fourth of the Cali- 
fornia chain. This was done, and it was named the Mission 
San Gabriel Arcangel; later, when it had been abandoned 
because of damage by erratic floods, known as Mission Vieja, 
or "Old Mission." When the storms of winter came and 
mountain streams flooded the valley, it was found an undesir- 
able location, and after four years a new site was sought. The 
ruins of the "Old Mission" may yet be seen where originally 
founded 146 years ago. 

Lo the Poor Indian 

I have said that Portola exchanged a smoke or two with 
Chief Hahamovic and received proper courtesies at his hands. 
I cannot say that it was good tobacco that was smoked, for it 
is doubtful that the true Virginia weed was extensively known 
to the Indians, but probably a wild variety. What kind of 
conversation was carried on and the subjects discussed can 
be conjectured, for the Indian knew not the white man's Ian- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 25 

guage and had little, in fact, of his own, and the worthy sol- 
diers certainly knew nothing of the aboriginal's dialect. It 
must have been a "Quaker Meeting" conversazione — so to 
say ! However, the red man deserves that respect due to an 
antiquity of ancestry which some families gladly pay for! 
No one knows the origin of these races of California Indians ; 
all information is but guesswork. There were numerous 
villages of them scattered throughout the valley, and, in fact, 
all over Southern California. Each clan had its head man, 
or "chief," usually an hereditary dignity, and a simulation 
of laws prevailed. One of these "clans" was located on Bay- 
mond Hill, one at Oak Knoll, one near Devil's Gate in the 
Arroyo Seco, one in Millard's Canyon, and the one which 
Hahamovic was head was located at Lincoln Park, in South 
Pasadena. The chief, Hahamovic, was taken into the bosom 
of the church, became baptized under the name of Pascual, 
afterwards married a Spanish woman named Angela Seise, 
and "lived happy ever after" — or at least to a very old age. 

In 1775 another Mission building was begun — a few hun- 
dred feet north of the present Mission. The new building 
was also built of adobe. Then, in a few years came a temblor 
or earthquake, which wrecked the newer edifice and rendered 
it unfit for permanent use. Persistent in their purpose, the 
indefatigable Frays began the construction of a larger and 
more substantial Mission, this time using burned brick and 
stone to fortify its walls. This is the Mission San Gabriel 
as seen today, differing little except that in the original there 
was a belfry, or tower, and the roof was of burned tile. An 
earthquake in 1804 destroyed the tile roof, which was then 
replaced by shingles. So it stands, modernized, yet still bear- 
ing the conspicuous features of the original Mission archi- 
tecture. 

When the Holy Fathers settled down in earnest to their 
work of proselytizing, they lost no time. The Indians were 
pressed into the labors of the day, and there being no trades 
unions, accepted the conditions offered, which were hard work, 
something to eat, and prospects of their souls' salvation — a 
new vista for them! They were instructed in manual labor 
and their hands built the Mission, under the guidance of more 
competent Spanish instructors, of course. Thus they were 
taught to serve the Lord and their new masters at the same 
time. Seeds, plants, vines and trees were brought from Spain 



26 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

or from New Spain (Mexico) and those neophytes ("Chris- 
tianized" Indians) were taught to plant and care for them. 
Gradually, the Aboriginal was led from his primitive habits 
and customs. In the past labor with them had been done 
mostly by proxy, i.e., by their wives, they looking on in satis- 
fied content. But as they lived the simple life, subsisting 
upon berries, the cactus pear, succulent roots or nuts, which 
the trees in paternal beneficence dropped at their feet, the 
labor was not arduous or prolonged. Game was abundant 
and fish to be had in the mountain streams, if the "buck" 
was unusually zealous. Even the festive grasshopper added 
much to the delight of a meal ; and the meat of the rattlesnake 
was the piece de resistance of epicurean festivities. Of any 
higher culture there was no evidence. Metates, or mortars, 
and pestles are yet turned up from the soil which in their 
day served to grind grain and nuts they used for food. Little 
clothing was worn, especially by the men. In winter, some- 
times a mere coating of mud served to protect from unusual 
cold. In later years, perhaps under the instructions of Span- 
ish hands, the women of these tribes became expert in making 
baskets, whose artistic design and figuring have made them 
of great value to the collector. Some of these collections, 
particularly those made by Mrs. Belle Jewett and Mrs. T. S. C. 
Lowe, were of exceptional merit, but have scattered since the 
death of their collectors. 

Christianizing the Indians 

It required time for these novices to become sufficiently 
familiar with their new arts to make themselves really useful. 
Also, it required time to inspire confidence in their new mas- 
ters — for they became Masters — and the process was not 
always through affectionate persuasion; but it was coming. 
An irrigation system was built into the canyon back of Mon- 
rovia (Sawpit) and water brought down. Fields of grain, 
vineyards and orchards, sprang up and bloomed where here- 
tofore the cactus and chaparral snugly harbored the long- 
eared jackrabbit and the horned toad. It is said that no less 
than four thousand Indians submitted to the new regime, 
became members of the priestly family and useful beings with 
a new purpose in life, under the domination of the Frays of 
San Gabriel. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 27 

It was a raw but willing, or at least obedient, material, 
and thrift and prosperity followed the labors at the Missions. 
This transformation came not in a day or a year; but the 
padres were patient and time to them had no significance, 
for upon the death of one, another took up his labors without 
interruption. Aside from the agricultural pursuits taught 
them, the women were initiated into heretofore mysterious 
things regarding morals and household craft. The use of the 
needle was made known. With the soldiers from Mexico had 
come some wives of them, who made their homes about the 
Mission and became useful instructors for the Indian women 
in new ideas of domestic life. Some of these soldiers estab- 
lished permanent homes and raised families whose descend- 
ants are now good California citizens. 

Thrice daily, at the sound of the Mission bells, the neo- 
phytes bowed their heads in token of submission to the new 
creed and their new masters. In the evenings, when the last 
regular meal of the day was eaten, they gathered within the 
Mission walls and listened to the admonitions of the padres, 
repeated their aves and sang a salve to their new God. Per- 
haps they had but faint comprehension of the meaning of all 
these things, but, at least, they were better fed and had more 
interest in life than formerly. The wise priests, after the 
usual religious services, permitted them to engage in amuse- 
ments. Dancing was one of these — no tangoes, of course! 
Thus were the childish minds captured and their hearts con- 
tented, and thus they were held in useful control. Doubtless 
there were occasions when more strenuous, even seemingly 
cruel, methods were indulged in. Fray Zalvidea, who 
assumed charge of this Mission in 1806, was one of the kind 
who displayed — according to repute — less gentleness and 
more severity of discipline. Perhaps conditions demanded 
this ; at any rate, Fray Zalvidea proved himself a good admin- 
istrator, if a hard taskmaster, and greatly advanced business 
affairs at the Mission. 

Los Angeles — nine miles distant — had been growing into 
a somewhat important pueblo. It was the western terminus 
of the great Santa Fe trail, over which traveled hosts of 
adventurers from the East who dreamed of fortunes out where 
the sun set, and journeyed with their ox teams, their mules 
and their horses, to the land of promise. The wharves of 
San Pedro were, even in those early days, important, and from 



28 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

them sailed ships laden with the products of the fertile valley. 
Hides, tallow and wool from the sleek, fat cattle and sheep 
that browsed npon the verdure of the sunny hillsides ; vintages 
from the vines that clustered on valley and mesa. From the 
dimpling grain fields was sent loads of wheat and barley; 
and from the olive groves oil equal to that from the hills of 
Sicily. In time the Mission San Gabriel gathered about it 
families from Mexico and Spain, who set up their lares and 
penates and the Mission prospered. When the weary traveler 
by the Santa Fe trail came upon this fertile, smiling settle- 
ment, where wine and food was offered him in generous quan- 
tities, he halted and partook of the hospitalities that greeted 
him. The newcomers gladly exchanged their gold for the 
fresh fruits and other highly satisfying provender, and halted 
for a time in the smiling sunshine. So the Mission and its 
people reaped prosperity therefrom. Thus matters continued 
for many years, until about 1813, in fact. The prosperity 
of the church and the fertility of the land had become known. 
The Junta in Mexico became desirous of possessing the rich 
soil of upper California. An edict was passed and the church 
deprived of its entire landed possessions. This was called 
" secularizing, ' ' and although this decree was not strictly 
put in force until twenty years afterwards, its effects were 
immediate, and in the end disastrous. Under the decree the 
Missions became mere parishes, the Indians being given small 
parcels of land for their own uses and homes were provided 
for them. The result of this new dispensation became demor- 
alizing, for these simple people could not manage themselves, 
the Missionaries foreseeing their authority gone and their 
control over the Indians lost heart. All their achievements 
had come to naught by a stroke of the pen ! It was easy to see 
that these aboriginals, bereft of any strong authority, would 
readily revert to their original condition — or worse. For they 
had a taste of civilization ! 

Parishes were to replace large land estates and the incomes 
thus be lost to the Missions. Without adequate income, what 
could be done? And this is what did happen. The author- 
ity gone, the Indians gradually dropped back again to 
their primal condition and became like sheep without a bell- 
wether. 

The tribe of Hahamovic, of the Isanthcognas and the 
Arvignas became scattered and were known thereafter as but 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



29 



a memory, and the years of labor of the Missionary Frays 
were annulled and their wards scattered and lost to them for 
all time. But the Mission San Gabriel still rears its walls 
and asserts its purpose, as sings Bret Harte — 

"Bells of the Past, whose long forgotten music 
Still fills the wide expanse, 
Tinging the sober twilight of the Present, 
With color of romance!" 





CHAPTER III 

Dona Eulalia Peeez de Guillen 

concerning a woman of many virtues who lived to an extraor- 
dinary age, doing many benevolent things the while. and 
her connection with this story. 

|E are approaching the link that connects the San 
Gabriel Mission and its lands with onr own Pasa- 
dena ; and in telling the story mnst of necessity, as 
well as by disposition, introduce a remarkable and 
worthy lady who was noted not only for her chari- 
ties and benevolent deeds, but for the remarkable length of 
life she attained. Her fame still lingers about the Mission 
walls, and the remembrance of her strong personality is told, 
even now, by some of the older residents of San Gabriel. This 
noted lady was Dona Eulalia de Guillen, born Perez. The 
Dona de Guillen was not of " noble' ' blood, but of good Span- 
ish extraction and was born in "Lower" California in 1735. 
She came to San Gabriel with her husband, who was a soldier 
of Spain, about the year 1800, being then sixty-five years of 
age. She then began her career of practical benevolence, 
which included nursing the sick, teaching the ignorant Indians 
housewifely arts, and acting as midwife upon occasion; and 
by these acts ingratiated herself into the notice of the padres, 
who fully appreciated her meritorious deeds. 

When the Junta of Mexico took steps to secularize the 
mission lands, Fray Zalvidea was in charge of the San Gabriel 
Mission, and foreseeing the consequences, decided to show 
his appreciation of Dona de Guillen's activities while he had 
the ability to do so. In this way came about the presentation 
to her of a deed to no less than 14,000 acres out of the north- 
west corner of the Mission lands. One might call it a hand- 
some gratuity indeed, when it is known that these lands 
embrace the very soil upon which Pasadena stands ; and much 
adjacent land as well — the entire San Pasquale Eanch, as 
known to map makers. This gift was made in 1826, just prior 
to Fray Zalvidea 's departure to San Juan Capistrano, to 
which place he had been ordered. Now one might think that 

30 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 31 

with such a benefaction as this the good lady would have been 
blessed and forever relieved from fear of need. Niot so, how- 
ever; she was ninety-two years old at the time, and without 
money. It was the law that gifts of crown lands must needs 
have certain conditions complied with, to confirm them. The 
important one that the Dona de Guillen could not comply with 
was that it must be stocked with cattle. The gift was duly 
ratified on Easter day, 1827, and because of the day was 
named "Bancho San Pascual," or "Easter Day Ranch,' ' the 
meaning it had in English, as heretofore explained. 

Perhaps it was because of indifference, but most probably 
because lacking financial ability to stock the land as stipu- 
lated by law, the proper requirements were not carried out. 
No cattle, sheep or horses were placed upon the lands, and 
also, she even failed to place upon record the deed of convey- 
ance. No trace of it can be found in our County archives. 
Nevertheless that the gift was made is a fact. Perhaps the 
old lady, knowing her inability to stock the ranch, felt also 
the uselessness of recording the title thereto. The law was 
doubtless a good one and prevented promiscuous land 
grabbing. 

So for these reasons, the good Dona lost her broad domain, 
although a putative husband of her later years unsuccessfully 
endeavored to revive the title. When greatly advancing years 
incapacitated this lady from following her usual pursuits, 
she became very poor. At one time — in 1876 — she appeared 
before Judge O'Melveny of Los Angeles, in charge of a daugh- 
ter, who claimed for her a right to appear at the Centennial 
Exposition, at Philadelphia, as an evidence of the effect of 
California climate on health and longevity ! The old lady was 
then 141 years of age and still sprightly. 

The Judge reprimanded this daughter, and another one 
appearing with Attorney Stephen M. White to oppose the 
request, the first daughter was compelled to give a bond of 
Rye hundred dollars to insure the order of the Court "that 
the mother be kept at her home and properly cared for," which 
agreement was duly entered into then and there, and probably 
kept. Old residents visiting San Gabriel will remember this 
old woman as an object of curiosity because of her great age. 
She looked the part, too, being much wrinkled and withered, 
her face like a russet apple, gnarled by keeping overlong. 
But her bright and friendly eyes, as well as her simple words 



32 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

of greeting, indicated a lively intellect to the end, almost. 
She died at San Gabriel, June 8th, 1878, being then 143 years 
old, and lies in the little cemetery there beside her first hus- 
band — who died in 1816 — and the many friends whose birth 
she attended and at whose funerals she had given kindly 
assistance. Four daughters survived Dona de Guillen, one 
marrying one Ora Lopez, son of Claudeo Lopez, builder of 
the Old Mill; another Michael White, an American, and 
another a Mr. De la Ossa. 

Some persons may be skeptical about the age of this good 
lady, but the records in San Diego County show the date of 
her baptism. Instances of extreme age are well known among 
Spanish people. There used to live in an old shack in the 
arroyo near the Devil's Gate, a Spanish woman named Lugo. 
She was known as "Old Francesca," and when she died — 
about 1896 — she was said to be 107 year old and was active 
unto the end. Another old lady who died at San Gabriel some 
years ago claimed to be 110. 

Peace be to the bones of Dona Eulalia, the first white 
owner — nominally at least — of the Eancho San Pascual. It 
is the duty of all loyal Pasadenans to remember her in their 
prayers ! 




CHAPTER IV 
Colonel Don Manual Garfias and Our Lady Chatelaine 




THE ROMANCE OP A GALLANT COLONEL AND A LOVELY LADY AND 
WHAT RESULTED THEREFROM. THE RANCHO SAN PASCUAL'S NEW 
OWNERS AND THE STORY OP THEIR VICISSITUDES OF FORTUNE. 

E have seen 
how the own- 
ership of the | 
" Easter Day 
Ranch," the 
Rancho San Pascual — 
orPasqnale — was 
forfeited by its first 
owner. Now comes a 
gallant son of Mars, 
fresh from the wars, 
handsome and poor ; as 
of course must ever a 
romantic hero be. I 
am introducing Colo- 
nel Manuel Garfias, of 
the staff of one Gen- 
eral Micheltorena, one of the governors of California. It 
had come to pass that Micheltorena had decided to visit South- 
ern California and pay his respects to Governor Pio Pico, 
who ruled the destinies of that section. Perhaps he was jeal- 
ous of Pico's popularity and growing power. At all events 
he gathered together a little army, and with a gallant staff 
surrounding him, proceeded southward to the pueblo of Los 
Angeles to look into the affairs of Pico, the renowned. Need- 
less here to relate, there were no " battles,' ' nor was gun- 
powder burned on this occasion. Battles in those days, 
compared with modern battles, were pleasing episodes of 
merriment. Micheltorena landed in San Diego, making his 
headquarters there, and found things apparently all right 
and the occasion resulted in an exchange of agreeable ameni- 

33 




RUINS OF THE GARFIAS ADOBE 1874 



34 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

ties between the two governors and their supporters. The 
land barons of Southern California, the noble Dons of their 
time, opened their doors in hospitable generosity to the offi- 
cers of Micheltorena. Instead of exploding gunpowder, they 
opened bottles, ate chile con carne and other comestibles. The 
tinkling guitar was heard, and in lieu of battle cries, sounds 
of revelry prevailed. Love passages were an agreeable sub- 
stitute for belligerency to these brave troopers. They were 
the good old times, when life meant a succession of pleasures 
each day, and "manana" was its slogan. The Dons had the 
means and inclination, and their fair daughters and gallant 
sons were glad to open the gates of the great "haciendas" to 
the ever welcome visitor, who was never asked for the where- 
withal to pay, even were he a stranger to the house and a 
wayfarer in the land. Contemporary annals say the Span- 
iards of California in those days were gallant, chivalrous 
and care free; the Senoras hospitable and good natured; the 
daughters beautiful, gracious and coquettish. Into this 
charmed life came Colonel Garfias, poor, handsome and brave. 
He became a favorite everywhere and fell a victim to the 
allurements surrounding him. It was natural. 

The toast of the pueblo Los Angeles and all the country- 
side was one Senorita Luisa Abila, whose beauty was cele- 
brated, even among the many charming belles of the day, and 
for whose hand many gallants had sued, but as yet, unsuccess- 
fully. It was not strange, then, that the soldierly figure of 
Colonel Garfias, with the halo of romantic interest that ever 
surrounds a warrior, should attract the fair Luisa and cap- 
ture her attention. Nor, on the other hand, that the son of 
Mars should fall a victim to her lovely charms. A fair match, 
you may agree, and doubtless mutually approved, for it was 
not long ere the troth was pledged and announced. But 
family traditions must ever, with the old regime, be respected, 
even though Cupid might be ever so complaisant and dance 
ever so coaxingly along primrose paths. As I have said, 
Colonel Garfias was poor, neither was he of high caste, though 
eminently respectable. 

The daughter of a Don may not marry and relinquish her 
position. Here comes, then, the gracious Micheltorena to 
straighten out the tangle and cause the god of love to smile 
approvingly, and smooth away, with a word, the obstacles 
that loomed frowningly upon the lovers. Micheltorena, with 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



35 




the easy generosity of the times, and 
a prodigality born of experience 
and expediency, simply granted his 
favorite Colonel the great Eancho 
San Pascual as a wedding gift ; and 
presto! the pathway of Mars was 
made smooth and easy. So the 
mere promptings of Cnpid, accel- 
erated by the witching eyes of the 
fair Senorita Luisa, became the 
easement of this baronial demesne ; 
the gallant Colonel became the hus- 
band of the famous Luisa Abila in 
January, 1843, and this charming 
lady became Pasadena's first "Lady 
Chatelaine ! ' ' 

But it was not Colonel G-arfias 
himself who -took charge of the gift, 
but Dona Abila, his wife's mother, 
for she it seems had both energy and 
ability. A foreman was placed in 
charge of the estate, and he lived in 
the little adobe south of the Ray- 
mond the while, Garfias in the meantime holding some 
offices of trust in the pueblo of Los Angeles, then having a 
population of about 3,000 souls. Dona Abila was of most 
excellent family, being related to the Sepulvedas, one of whom 
was a County Judge, who afterwards distinguished himself 
in Mexico City in the practice of law, and was also financial 
agent for the Hearst estate of 2,000,000 acres in that country. 
He died in 1915. Colonel Garfias was now a Don by virtue 
of his estate, and with his good lady cut a figure in the social 
life of the County. 

Then bad blood arose between his old General and friend 
Micheltorena and Governor Pico, and Micheltorena came to 
settle things and to bring Pico to book. Pico was not back- 
ward himself, and met Micheltoreno 's army at Cahuenga, near 
Hollywood, and fought a battle there, mostly at long range, 
which lasted most of two days. One may guess the blood- 
thirstiness of said "battle' ' when it is stated that a mule or 
two were rendered hors de combat, but no human lives lost. 
Some Americans engaged in this "battle" on the side of Pico, 



DONA LUISA GARFIAS 

Pasadena's First Lady Chatelaine 
(In maturity) 



36 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 




HEADQUARTERS OF PICO'S ARMY STAFF 
Before Surrender to Fremont 



among them B. D. Wil- 
son, who was at the 
time Alcalde (Mayor) 
of Los Angeles. As 
could be expected, Gar- 
fias remained loyal to 
his former General 
Micheltorena and with 
some others joined him 
in this engagement. 
After the two days of 
combat it seemed like 
a "draw" to the op- 
posing governors and 
a truce was called. 
Micheltorena made 
terms with Pico, leav- 
ing him in his old posi- 
tion, and departed for 
Monterey with his troops. But Garfias remained in Los 
Angeles, as he was enabled to do under the treaty just made. 
This fracas occurred in 1845 and was the final one between 
California governors of the old regime. In 1846 the disturb- 
ance between the United States and Mexico was on ; the pos- 
session of California was threatened both by Great Britain 
and Eussia, both having longings for it. The United States 
had knowledge of this fact, and sent the "pathfinder," John C. 
Fremont, down to Los Angeles to anticipate this contingency 
and take possession of California for the United States. 
Fremont came, saw and conquered, and made himself a pictur- 
esque figure in history. There was a "battle," and General 
Andres Pico made a treaty with Fremont, January 13th, 1847, 
surrendering the country to the United States. This occurred 
at Cahuengo, near Hollywood. It is of especial interest to us 
to know in this connection that the adobe house standing just 
south of the Raymond Hotel was, during the invasion of Fre- 
mont, the headquarters of General Flores and his staff of 
Pico's army, which included General Andres Pico, the Gov- 
ernor's brother, Don Jesus Pico (a nephew), Colonel Caville, 
Colonel Castro and Colonel Garfias. Their little army was 
encamped amidst the sycamores which yet stand near the 
adobe house. In these headquarters a hasty council was held 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 37 

and foreseeing themselves outnumbered and beaten, a plan 
of surrender was agreed upon and commissioners appointed 
to meet Fremont and offer terms. Governor Pico had 
retreated to his ranch and General Flores had been made 
commander-in-chief, as well as temporary Governor, by a 
recent act of the Legislature, met in special session at Los 
Angeles, and he selected Francesco de la Guerra and Fran- 
cesca Eico to meet Fremont to ascertain what terms could 
be made with him. This was preliminary to the Commission 
afterwards appointed by Pico to sign the compact. It is not 
part of this history to go into further details of this treaty. 
But it is interesting to know that Colonel Garfias, who, accord- 
ing to arrangements made with Fremont, was permitted to 
remain peacefully, but chose not to submit himself to Gringo 
rule, next day departed, in company with a score or more 
of companions, for Mexico, where he remained until the dis- 
turbance going on in that country was settled. In 1847 he 
was again in Los Angeles, by the treaty with Mexico having 
become an American citizen. Again settling down to poli- 
tics in Los Angeles, he in 1850 became a regidore, or Council- 
man, and a year later, County Treasurer. But the call of 
the landed proprietor was upon him, he wanted the distinction 
that befell the Don, in person. In 1852, therefore, he built 
the hacienda of adobe on the Eancho San Pascual, where he 
proposed to set himself up as a land baron like his fellows. 
This hacienda was located on the bank of the arroyo seco, 
where nearby gushed a clear, sparkling spring of the purest 
water. The spring is still gushing forth in a bubbling stream, 
but the hacienda has long since been scattered in the dust of 
the surrounding fields. 

To the completed hacienda came the Garfias family in 
1853. Two children, daughters, had been born to them by 
then, and they began their residence under auspicious circum- 
stances. 




CHAPTER V 

The Bancho San Pascual 

GIVING SOME DESCRIPTION OP THE GREAT RANCHO AND OP THE AFFAIRS OF 
ITS SUCCESSIVE OWNERS. THE MISFORTUNE OP THE GARFIAS FAMILY 
AND THEIR EFFACEMENT FROM THESE CHRONICLES. THE LIFE OF 
THE DONS AND THEIR UNBUSINESSLIKE SYSTEM. 

HE Rancho San Pascual — or San Pasquale, as it is 
now generally spelled — covered all of the area from 
the west bank of the Arroyo Seco to Lamanda Park 
on the east ; northward to the mountains ; and south- 
ward to the area reserved for the Mission, including 
South Pasadena, the Wilson ranch and the present Hunting- 
ton place of San Marino — once part of the Wilson estate and 
later the property of the Shorb family. It comprised, as 
before stated, 14,000 acres — three and a half square leagues — 
a sightly and fertile domain fit for founding a family or per- 
petuating a princely heritage. It would be pleasant for this 
scribe to write here of the happiness and prosperity of the 
family of Garfias, so auspiciously begun under indulgent and 
nattering auguries. Unfortunately, however, Don Manuel 
Garfias was less of a rancher or stockman than a soldier; 
fonder perhaps, like his kind, of the " camaraderie ' ' of his 
fellows than of the duties pertaining to the business of a land 
owner. Yet he was ambitious to live as other large land 
owners of the day, and he was raising a family. When he 
decided to build his hacienda he wished to build a good one ; 
but he lacked the coin of the realm to do it. What then easier 
than to borrow it? His friend, Dr. John S. Griffin of Los 
Angeles, was ready to loan it to him — at four per cent per 
month ! Usurious ! I hear exclaimed ; true, but in those pip- 
ing times this was not an excessive rate, as high as twelve per 
cent, per week, having been known as not uncommon ! Land 
was the cheapest thing there was ; it was plentiful, therefore 
poor security. Morris Newmark, in his Memoirs, relates a 
case wherein $200 was loaned on a rancho at twelve per cent 
weekly. It was then the custom to allow the interest to run 
until the principal was due, no matter how many years. In 

38 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 39 

this instance the debt, with interest compounded weekly, as 
was agreed, amounted to, when finally called for, $26,000! 
Of course, the "capitalist" took the ranch. 

Garfias had a son born to him on this ranch in 1853, 
Manuel E., and in 1855 another, Mariana Jose, the first white 
children born on the rancho. Then, still scenting the smell 
of gunpowder, or perhaps disliking the call of the soil, he 
once more sought his old calling and went to Mexico, where 
he fought in the cause of President Juarez. Back he came 
to the rancho and domestic life. In the meantime the interest 
on the little mortgage — only forty-eight per cent per annum ! 
was working industriously, as interest will invariably do — 
day and night. It is the businesslike way that interest has. 
No doubt Garfias was astonished when called upon to pay by 
Dr. Griffin. He couldn't pay. The upshot was that Dr. 
Griffin paid him $2,000 additional and took over the whole 
ranch, stock and everything else on it. The $2,000 was sup- 
posed to be for the stock and utensils. Censorious critics 
may accuse Dr. Griffin of a "freeze out," yet there are men 
yet living in Los Angeles who will say that the Doctor paid 
more for the ranch than it was worth at the time. "Two 
bits" (25 cents) an acre was then considered a fair price for 
land such as this — grazing land. The whole of East Los 
Angeles was sold to William Workman in 1856 for fifty cents 
per acre! The city owned it and much other land that it 
obtained when the capitulation was made. Thus passed from 
her beloved acres their first lady chatelaine. As was befit- 
ting, and as we like to believe, she was beautiful and as gra- 
cious as she was beautiful. About her memory there will 
ever cling a sentiment of romance — the romance of her people 
and of her time. It would be a fine thing to follow her declin- 
ing years with happy circumstance of attending comfort and 
of luxuries befitting a noble dame. Alas, facts will not per- 
mit! The good lady was so far reduced in fortune that, 
while living in San Diego in the last years of her life — where 
she had come after her husband's death — friends in Pasa- 
dena, in 1898, endeavored to raise a sum of money for her 
assistance! Then a widow, her family scattered in foreign 
countries, her beauty departed, this once belle of Los Angeles 
was reduced to distressful circumstances. As for Colonel 
Garfias, with fortune broken, he had again gone to Mexico 
seeking more propitious opportunities. We hear of him being 



40 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

appointed United States Consul at Tepic by President Grant 
in 1870, and Consul at San Bias from 1873 to 1877. He died 
in the City of Mexico, November 20th, 1895. The son 
Manuel E., first white (Spanish) child born on Eancho San 
Pasquale, followed the military instincts of his father and was 
killed in 1893 in an uprising in Honduras, having become a 
Colonel by that time. The brother of this boy, Mariana Jose, 
also born here, became a lawyer in Mexico and was a delegate 
to the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893. He is yet believed 
to be living in Mexico. 

Thus passeth from this history, and all concern with it, 
the family Garfias. Perhaps the shades of the gallant colonel 
and his fair lady may sometimes wander amidst the syca- 
mores that grow in the arroyo, upon whose banks they once 
reposed in happy days. Perhaps, now and then, they again 
come to quaff at the crystal spring that gushes from these 
banks and listen to the mocking birds' carols. If they do, I 
trust that Judge Glover, from his nearby home, will show 
them the courtesies due returning fanes to deserted home- 
steads. 

The abandoned hacienda fell into decay ; its roof dropped 
within; its beautiful green blinds (a rare adjunct to an adobe), 
no longer jealous of flashing eyes within, hung in desolate 
dejection from broken hinges. Then, when Judge Eaton 
built his home upon a nearby site, he removed some of the 
heavy timbers and used them in his new house — now incorpo- 
rated in the home of Mrs. Sherman Hoyt. George W. Glover 
acquired the site of the Garfias hacienda many years ago, and 
loves to sit in the shade of its old trees and recite his harrow- 
ing adventures of frontier life. 

In 1858, Benjamin S. Eaton, who had brought his first 
wife to California for the benefit of her health, took charge 
of the Eancho San Pascual for his friend Dr. Griffin. The 
death of his wife in a few months caused Eaton to leave it, 
and the hacienda was vacant, once again. I have noted in a 
preceding page how the first white (Spanish) owner of the 
Eancho San Pascual, Dona Eulalia Perez de Guillen (nomi- 
nal owner only), failed to secure her rights as owner of the 
same. As a matter of historic fact, notwithstanding her 
neglect and failure to conform to the law in this respect, she, 
or rather some of her heirs, endeavored to revive a title. 
When she had become almost a centenarian, a Castilian named 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 41 

Marine appeared at San Gabriel, courted and married her! 
He had acquired a little home in San Gabriel, but for some 
reason the two aged mates failed to live amicably together 
and parted, she receiving the little home and the husband 
accepting a deed to the Rancho San Pascual, probably believ- 
ing her title good, which, in fact, Governor Figueroa had 
declared it to be, and gave Marine a grant to it. Neverthe- 
less, the title was not good, for this grant of Governor Figue- 
roa did not stand. However that may be, a son of Marine 
afterwards sold his hereditary interest in the ranch to Jose 
Perez, a cousin of Eulalie de Guillen (1839) for "six horses 
and ten head of cattle.' ' This man Perez built the adobe 
below the Raymond, the headquarters of Pico's troopers, as 
heretofore related, and lived there for some time. 

The fall of the Gariias family fortunes is an illustration 
of the career of most of the proud Dons who owned princely 
estates in California at the time of Fremont's arrival. These 
great estates were given, by the lavish hands of governors, or 
by the Crown, to friends, or to the soldiers who distinguished 
themselves in some way. If the Governor wished to reward 
a follower, he simply requested him to take a horse (few 
Spaniards ever thought of walking), and ride north, south, 
east or west 'for so many hours, and the lands thus circum- 
scribed were his. 

Nothing was more plentiful than acres, and nothing suited 
the worthy Dons quite so well as to possess them, for with 
these estates came the distinction pertaining to the landed pro- 
prietor, and the means to display his natural bent. These 
estates must be stocked with cattle and horses, of course, and 
supplied the means of maintenance. Thus it occurred that Cal- 
ifornia was owned largely by the great landed Dons who were 
noted for their hospitality and the luxurious lives they lived. 
Peons did the work, while the sons lived a life of happy indif- 
ference to everything but the pleasures of the day. To them 
Monona was a bother to think about; today was sufficient. 
This method of living, ideal to them, brought about in the end 
their financial downfall and the eventual sequestration of their 
baronies. When the Gringo came with his Yankee shrewd- 
ness and love of gain, also his shining ducats, nothing seemed 
easier to the Don when he needed money than to get it from 
him who so cheerfully loaned it ! What was a mortgage more 
or less anyhow ? The end was inevitable and disastrous. In 



42 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

a few years many of the Dons were living in tumbledown 
"adobes wherever they might find shelter, and the now hated 
Gringo occupied the great haciendas where the Caballero had 
once so gallantly wooed the fair senorita to strains of sweet 
music, in the glamour of bright moonlight, and with roses 
scenting the air. 

Alas for the improvident and confiding Don ! His descend- 
ants today are known chiefly by the repute of the family name, 
but not by their possessions, and it is one of the melancholy 
chapters of California's history that this is true. At least, 
they were picturesque figures whose like will nevermore be 
seen in this land ; the real and only romantic figures of Amer- 
ican life; grafted upon it, from the land of Don Quixote, but 
nevertheless performing an important part therein. Pio Pico, 
once great landed proprietor and worthy Governor, died in a 
tumbledown adobe with his pride humbled and his possessions 
gone. Others once as proud and rich in acres have been 
added to this record of confiding innocence. 

BEFORE THE GRINGO CAME 

In the quiet of the patio where the friendly sunbeams lie 
Sits Don Pedro, last descendant, of the glorious days gone by, 
Sits and dreams he of the glory of his father's house and fame 
As they lived in song and story long before the Gringo came. 

From his dreams there grew fair vistas, conjured up before his gaze, 
While the shadows grow and deepen, dreams he of the bygone days; 
y Tis a vision fidl of gladness, all the actors are the same — 
As they were when youth was with him, long before the Gringo came. 



Sees he fairest senoritas with alluring smiles and eyes, 
Hears again their happy voices, pledges, too, with tender sighs; 
Stands there yonder Don Francisco and beside him gracious dame; 
Forbears they of dreaming Pedro — long before the Gringo came. 

Proud senora, prouder senor, blood of noble house were they, 
But to thee, oh hapless Pedro, fate unkind hath come this day ; 
Lord of countless herds and acres, heir to once illustrious name, 
All are vanished — herds and acres; vanished since the Gringo came. 




CHAPTER VI 

Chronological Succession of Titles 

HE WHO AVOIDS DRY STATISTICS WILL NOT FIND MUCH EXCITEMENT IN 
THE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING PAGES ; BUT HE WILL FIND IMPORTANT 
FACTS IN THE CHAIN OF TITLE TO THE SAN PASCUAL RANCHO, AS 
RECORDED, SHOWING JUST HOW IT DESCENDED TO OUR COLONISTS 
FROM INDIANA. 

S noted in preceding pages, Manuel G-arfias lost title 
to the domain he received as a wedding dower, and 
Dr. John S. Griffin, a practicing physician of Los 
Angeles, speculator "on the side," obtained it. 
This happened in 1858, although the records of the 
county show that Garfias and his wife conveyed "all right, 
title and interest' ' in this same ranch on January 15th, 1859, 
to B. D. Wilson for the sum of $1,800. No explanation is 
given for this duplicate transfer, but it may have been merely 
to confirm title in Wilson's lands, already conveyed; or some 
possible equity in the same, that might yet remain. As both 
this transfer to Wilson and to Griffin took place prior to the 
real confirmation of title to Garfias by the United States, 
which did not occur until April 3rd, 1863, it might also be 
assumed that this was done so that no claim could be after- 
wards set up. Anyhow, so the records read. Judge Eaton, 
as has been said, represented Griffin in his occupancy of the 
premises at that time, and undertook to bring down the waters 
of the arroyo to some of the lands and otherwise lay the foun- 
dation for general farming. Eaton was an engineer, had been 
a newspaper man in several states and was, later (1865), a 
Judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. On 
account of Eaton's brief residence on the ranch, his work was 
not finished during that period, but continued later, as will 
be shown. On December 11th, 1862, B. D. Wilson purchased 
from Griffin 640 acres for $500, of which he conveyed 262 
acres to Eliza A. Johnston for the sum of $1,000. Mrs. Johns- 
ton was Dr. Griffin's sister. This purchase by Mrs. Johnston 
is of more than passing interest because of the part in 
National history that was performed by her husband, General 

43 



44 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Albert Sidney Johnston. At the outbreak of the Civil War, 
General Albert Sidney Johnston was stationed at the Presidio, 
San Francisco, and was ordered to report at Washington. 
General Johnston was a Virginian and knew what the sum- 
mons meant, and instead of so reporting he sent in his resig- 
nation and joined the Confederate cause. At the battle of 
Shiloh, April 6th, 1862, he was killed, while gallantly leading 
his troops. It is said that he was shot through an artery of 
the leg, and was not aware of the seriousness of his wound, 
but while talking to a member of his staff fell from his horse 
and expired in a few minutes. Mrs. Johnston had remained 
on her ranch, which she named "Fair Oaks," from her own 
home in Virginia, and began to till it, under the management 
of Judge Eaton. It may be here added that Hancock Johnston, 
son of General and Mrs. Johnston, married Mary, daughter 
of Judge Eaton, and is now a resident, with his family, of 
Los Angeles. 

Judge Eaton again married and became, after the settle- 
ment of the Indiana Colony, one of its foremost promoters 
and advisers. His son, Fred Eaton, was mayor of Los 
Angeles one term, and it was from him the ranch where the 
great Los Angeles Aqueduct rises was purchased. Judge 
Eaton died in Los Angeles some years ago, but two of his 
daughters and son Fred are living there now. 

On the Fair Oaks ranch, which later was the residence of 
Judge Eaton, was demonstrated the successful propagation 
of grapes on "dry" land — i. e., without irrigation. Judge 
Eaton was also among the first to plant the Eucalyptus in 
California. He sold this ranch to J. F. Crank in 1877. Gen- 
eral Phineas Banning, the father of Hancock Banning of Los 
Angeles, formerly a resident of Pasadena, and of Captain 
J. B. Banning; who established Wilmington, and so called it 
from his "home town" in Delaware, became an owner in the 
San Pascual Banch, March 3rd, 1869. 

It is shown by the records that he purchased "all right, 
title and interest" of B. D. Wilson in said ranch for $35,000. 
Then immediately retransf erred it back to Wilson for $30,000. 
Perhaps this was no sale, but a business turn "between 
friends." Then we find that on September 23d, 1870, Griffin 
deeded ' ' an undivided half interest ' ' in the remaining part of 
the ranch to Wilson, and "all unsold claims therein," for a 
nominal consideration; there being less than half of the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 45 

original tract remaining; the Grogan tract (lying west of 
Lamanda Park) of 5,000 acres having been sold already. 

On June 20th, 1872, Griffin and Wilson deeded to Prudent 
Beaudry, lands lying on the west side of the Arroyo Seco con- 
taining thirty acres. At this time there remained, in joint 
ownership between Griffin and Wilson, 5,328 acres. In Decem- 
ber, 1873, a survey was made of this, followed by its partition 
between the owners, Griffin taking 3,962 acres and Wilson 
1,366. 

B. D. Wilson built a fine ranch house on his place, and his 
family — those that survive — live there now. Wilson was a 
man of superior ability and took a prominent part in the 
affairs of his day. For a time he was Alcalde, or Mayor, of 
Los Angeles and also had some military experience here and 
with Indians while trading on western plains. He married 
Ramona Yorba, daughter of Don Bernardo Yorba, a great 
ranch owner. A daughter of Wilson married J. De Barth 
Shorb (of whom more anon), another named Hon. George D. 
Patton, a man of affairs and a recent candidate on the Demo- 
cratic ticket for IT. S. Senator. Patton occupies the old 
Wilson Hacienda at San Gabriel. Wilson purchased the 
Jerupa rancho, where the city of Eiverside is now located, 
from Don Juan Bandini for $1,000 per league (about 4,000 
acres). Juan Bandini was the father of Arturo Bandini, of 
Pasadena, who married Helen Elliott, daughter of Dr. T. B. 
Elliott, one of Pasadena's founders. It has been said that 
Helen Hunt Jackson chose the title to her celebrated novel, 
Ramona, after meeting a daughter of J. De Barth Shorb, who 
possessed that beautiful name. This has been denied, but 
from regard for the former Miss Shorb, now Mrs. Major 
Murtaugh, U. S. Army, and a fair knowledge of her charming 
personality, I prefer to believe the story. We have traced 
the title of the rancho San Pasquale to Dr. Griffin, who sold 
it to the Indiana Colony; I will now take up the history of 
that body of pioneers who sought this new Jordan and who 
are the occasion of this history. 




CHAPTEE VIII 

As It Was in the Beginning — The Indiana Colony 

THE INDIANA COLONY MAKES A START. IN THIS CHAPTER IT IS RELATED 
HOW MEN AND WOMEN FROM INDIANA, IOWA, AND OTHER PAR AWAY 
PLACES, SET STAKES FOR NEW HOMES, AND OTHER MATTERS PER- 
TAINING THERETO. 

'Midst the breath of a million blossoms 
And the sound of a songbird's lyre, 
Lies the Valley of Contentment, 
And the Garden of Desire. 

HE twenty-seventh day of January, 1874, must ever 
be a day of historical importance in the calendar 
of Pasadena. On this day, the pioneers, having 
previously purchased a domain upon which they 
were desirous of testing a hazard of new fortunes, 
met upon the land for the purpose of choosing, each for him- 
self, or for the friend he represented, the very spot whereon 
his future abode must be. On this momentous day, having 
thus met in a common purpose, having pooled their fortunes 
and ambitions, their experience in life and its affairs; above 
all, pledging themselves in their new undertaking by bonds of 
mutual regard and good will, they set their stakes with faith in 
the future that lay before them ; believing these smiling skies 
auspicious auguries of happy destinies. On this day, the 
Indiana Colony became a reality. It was born in Indiana, 
but it blossomed in the golden sunshine of California. That 
its history has justified the most sanguine expectations of its 
apostles and those who came after, will be seen by those who 
follow it. 

It is a delightful flight of the imagination — back over the 
intervening years — to picture the scenes of that fair January 
day, 43 years ago. Pioneers who participated in its events, 
happily yet live, and enjoy this retrospect, and can still indulge 
in the emotions which beset them then. Their reminiscences 
afford the historian of today, substance for his pen, and so 
the reader will indulge the chronicler, if he merely embellishes 

46 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 47 

these pages with some feats of imagination in his own behalf, 
while delineating the real events he wishes to recall. 

They had come far, from eastern homes, or from the 
places yet called "out west" by those who lived farther east- 
ward. They had been foregathering in Los Angeles ; then an 
unattractive town, crude and unpolished. And the promise 
was not propitious— yet. No pullmans landed them in sar- 
torial freshness upon this, the domain of their choice, the 
threshold of their future abode, and it was but natural that 
some were filled with apprehension and forebodings. Yet 
they did not show it if this was so, and we find them on this 
day gathered, prepared to choose their particular home sites 
and begin their new hazard of fortunes. All was animation, 
and expectation shone upon every countenance. This was to 
be for them the epoch making day, that day in January of 
1874. Some came on horseback, some in carriages, some in 
buggies or wagons — such as could be procured in Los Angeles 
No matter, they were there. The place of rendezvous was 
just where the Orange Grove Avenue reservoir is — the most 
commanding spot on the land. I am told that the day was an 
ideal January day of Southern California. The kind when 
the sun shines in glorious radiance through an atmosphere 
washed of dust and smoke until it is perfectly transparent. 
It was just warm enough, just sparkling enough, to give life 
and zest to men's souls and cheer their courage. 

Jollity and good nature prevailed in this little band, and 
their happiness was attuned to the glory of the day. All being 
gathered about the President of the Association, a map of the 
tract was unrolled, (this map is now in the possession of the 
City of Pasadena) and the conditions of sale explained once 
again. Such men as P. M. Green, A. 0. Porter, Thomas Croft, 
Judge Eaton and Sherman Washburn, gave sage advice as to 
the selection of home sites, no doubt, for they were ever ready 
to "lend a hand" to their friends and neighbors. The map 
examined, they scattered over the lands to choose, each for 
himself, the particular spot he most desired. It was a merry 
quest, this homesite picking, and it meant much to them. Yet 
there was such variety, so much to choose from that all were 
satisfied by the time luncheon was called at high noon, when 
the wives and daughters — for they too were there, called the 
men together. A fine refection was found spread under 
friendly boughs which gave the finishing touches to the occa- 



48 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

sion. Personal views were exchanged, plans and hopes dis- 
cussed and prophecies indulged in to the heart's content. 

Attachments were formed that day that became enduring 
bonds unto the end, and dreams were made to come true by 
vows of courage and mutual help. I wish I could linger longer 
in this scene, and dwell, with those pioneers, in their new 
found Paradise. 

The loveliness of the scene, the charm of the day, fitted 
well into its prophecies — a forecast of days to come. It was 
a perfect California day in a perfect California spring, and 
the sorcery of its sunshine and the allurement of its caressing 
breath, found them willing captives. The blue mountains in 
the north, the green carpeted mesas and foothills, were impres- 
sive pictures. The bending skies of sapphire dipped into the 
mists of yonder western seas, where the imagination could 
easily picture the shallops of Argonauts breasting gentle 
billows as they came searching for the golden fleece. The 
pioneer looked upon this in delight — and he saw more. In 
the valley to the south and west, for miles and miles, dappling 
fields of wild oats and alfileria spread in waving mantles of 
green and blue and lost themselves in the distant hills, and 
the whole scene was one glorious picture. 

This, my reader, is no imaginary scene, but a real one of 
which many duplicates followed before the tiller of the soil 
transformed its native loveliness — the real call of California 
as expressed in its lovely moods. But the pioneer was there 
for business that day. The selection of each particular plot 
must be confirmed. Some had chosen already but others, 
laggard in deciding, now concluded their choice and entered 
into compact with the Secretary of the Orange Grove Associ- 
ation, whereby they confirmed their membership in a practical 
and definite way. It was virgin soil, new, as it had come from 
the hands of God. The prow of the plough had never yet 
cloven its surface, nor had the foot of man, except perhaps 
the shepherd or the Indian, trod its grassy mantle. Sheep 
and cattle and horses had been the only connecting link with 
civilization known to these pristine fields. The slinking coyote 
had peered through the dense chapparel in quest of unwitting 
prey; perhaps a mountain lion with her trailing whelps, had 
at times slunk through these cattle paths, astray from their 
canyon home. This day, lush grasses and wild flowers were 
as a brilliant robe upon the earth. On the slopes and hills 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



49 



millions of many hued blossoms spread their dazzling glories. 
Acres and acres of copper and gold poppies ; millions of baby 
blue eyes; wild portulaccas; buttercups, and mustard, made 
a marvelous mantle of color, splashing the emerald bosom like 
the arabesques of Aladdin's carpet. Down in the arroyo, the 
startled birds eyed these intruders from Indiana with concern, 
but soon discovered their peaceable intentions, for they set 
up their choruses from every branch. The blue jay tapped 
his welcome upon the giant sycamore; the darting tanager 
sped like a crimson gleam across the umbrageous arroyo; 
and from a majestic oak came the melodious orchestration 
of mocking birds, filling the land with their liquid music. Thus 
the invaders were met with exultant greetings and marvelous 
visions. It was the opulence of summer in a land combining 
the loveliness of Italy and the picturesqueness of Switzerland. 
The last Don had lazed here in indolent improvidence and 
arcadian unthrift, but the metamorphosis was at hand; for 
the gringo had come to usurp his dominance, to create a splen- 
did city from neglected acres, and lay the foundations for a 
new civilization. 




COLORADO ST. BRIDGE 




CHAPTER VIII 

Those Who Weke Pkesent 

HE honored guests at the January 27th picnic, should 
have their names entered here for preservation 
against faulty memories and perishing records. 

Unfortunately, not all those present can be 
named, for there were some who but came to linger 
and to look upon the scene, with perhaps but prospective 
interest . The actual buyers had already predicated their 
agreements in due form, at the Los Angeles headquarters, 
and they ratified their choice here — not one faltered. 

Some of the colonizers had not been able to come in person, 
but had authorized their purchase and selection by proxy. 
According to the minutes of the organization, the following 
named persons became purchasers, as designated. The uni- 
form price represented about $30 per acre, which could be 
made in payments covering a year, as was done by most pur- 
chasers. This included cost of water, etc. 

P. M. Green and A. 0. Porter, Indiana (together) . . 80 acres 

J. H. Baker, Indiana 15 acres 

W. J. Barcus, Indiana 15 acres 

A. W. Dana, Indiana 15 acres 

Jesse Yarnel, Ohio 15 acres 

A. 0. Bristol, Iowa 30 acres 

I. N. Mundell, Iowa 30 acres 

Ney Strickland, Georgia 15 acres 

Jabez Banbury, Iowa 60 acres 

Ni. E. Gibson, Indiana 60 acres 

Henry G. and Will J. Bennett, Michigan 60 acres 

D. M. Berry, for self and Dr. Elliott, Indiana 165 acres 

Thomas F. Croft, Indiana 60 acres 

W. T. Clapp, Massachusetts 60 acres 

Calvin Fletcher, Indiana (for self and others) 180 acres 

Benjamin S. Eaton (with A. O. Porter), Missouri. . . 60 acres 

50 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 51 

Purchasers by their representatives : — 

E. J. Vawter, by Berry, Indiana 60 acres 

Mrs. C. A. Vawter, by Berry, Indiana 60 acres 

T. J. and L. J. Lockhart, by Fletcher, Indiana 30 acres 

T. E. Lippincott, by Berry, Pennsylvania 60 acres 

H. J. Holmes, by Clapp, Massachusetts 60 acres 

J. M. Matthews, by Croft, Ohio 60 acres 

Ward Leavitt, by Berry, Indiana 60 acres 

A. W. Hutton, by Eaton, Alabama 30 acres 

Bepresenting the entire stock in the Association. 

Just twenty-eight purchasers in all and seventeen pur- 
chasers " present," with a total purchase of 1300 acres out 
of the 1500 acres of supposed irrigable land, from the 4000 
Colony's ownership. The balance of the lands, those not 
purchased by the settlers that day, lay in the arroyo bottom 
and on the mesa; the latter, at that time supposed to be of 
little value, being too high above the arroyo streams to permit 
raising the water to them. The purchasers by proxy came 
out from their eastern homes shortly afterwards. Wives and 
children were there also to aid and abet in their undertaking, 
and to bring happy greeting to their future neighbors. 

Each seven and one-half acres of land carried with it one 
share of stock in the Association, representing just that frac- 
tional ownership in the lands and the waters of the arroyo 
pertaining to these lands, which was thereby insured to the 
land forever, according to riparian law of the state. 

Besides those named as purchasers in the original list,, 
there came the following — some with families — during the 
years 1874 and 1875, so far as can now be ascertained: — 
Charles H. Watts, Illinois, 74; M. Eosenbaum, Iowa, 74; 
Eev. W. C. Mosher, New York, 74 ; Major Erie Locke, Indi- 
ana, 74; Dr. O. H. Conger, New York, 74; W. E. Cooley, 
Massachusetts, 74; Dr. H. G-. Newton, Illinois, 75; Sherman 
Washburn, Iowa, 75. Of these, but five now (1917) survive : — 
Henry G-. Bennett, A. W. Hutton (Los Angeles), J. H. Baker, 
O. A. Bristd and S. Washburn. J. H. Baker, drawing upon 
his memory of the occurrences of the day when the land was 
allotted, says that short addresses were made by some who 
owned ranches in the surrounding country. Among those 
were General Stoneman, who had retired to his -fine ranch 



52 



PASADENA— HISTOEICAL AND PERSONAL 



south of the Colony lands after the Civil War, and who later 
became the Governor of California ; L. H. Titus ; Judge Eaton ; 
and also Calvin Fletcher, all of whom spoke welcoming and 
cheering words to the settlers. The day's work over, they 
all departed to Los Angeles or vicinity, with new resolves or 
old ones renewed, for the future; hastening to prepare for 
taking up their actual residence. 





CHAPTEE IX 

The Genesis — The California Colony of Indiana 



AUTHOR BELIEVES BELONGS HERE. GIVING INFORMATION ABOUT 
THE ACTUAL ORGANIZATION OF THE INDIANA COLONY AND THOSE 
WHO BEGAN IT. 

|AVING landed the pilgrims upon their chosen land 
and amid such pleasant and desirable surroundings ; 
having seen them making ready for their new for- 
tunes, and believing them able to commence opera- 
tions without his guidance, the author begs per- 
mission to return to the good city of Indianapolis, where was 
incubated the Great Idea; commence at the very beginning of 
its history, and tell how it began and who began it. No 
unpleasant results may be anticipated because those aforesaid 
pilgrims were, for the time being, abandoned to their fate 
and fortunes in the new land ; for it is certain they knew how 
to take care of themselves, and if any one person did not, the 
bond of fellowship that now bound them together was suffi- 
ciently strong to beget whatever aid and sympathy might 
be required under all circumstances. We heard the sympho- 
nies of birds welcome them, and the redolence of wild flowers, 
wafted by gentle south winds, bring joy to their senses. 
Therefore, in these safe and luxurious surroundings we leave 
them for a time. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE CALIFORNIA COLONY 
OF INDIANA 

In Indianapolis, in the beginning of the seventies, there 
had met, by the fortuitous circumstances of neighborly prox- 
imity, some men and women who, ambitious for the good 
things of God's making, had found themselves becoming 
dissatisfied with the chills and rigors of an exigent climate — 
both winter and summer — and yearned for more propitious 
environments. 

53 



54 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

To these people it seemed that there must be something in 
the world better than extreme cold and heat ; sultry days in 
summer, and frigid days in winter. They were not filled with 
foolish, altruistic notions, but just craved the happiness of 
pleasant essentials, and coveted their possession. 

The foremost of those interested were Dr. T. B. Elliott and 
Mrs. Elliott; D. M. Berry, Dr. Elliott's partner in the grain 
purchasing business. Also Calvin Fletcher, John H. Baker, 
J . M. Matthews and J. H. Euddell. The subject was discussed 
at the Elliott home and in the Berry and Elliott office. Florida 
was at first considered, but California had the call, and West- 
ward Ho was the moving sentiment. "Writers had been indulg- 
ing in paroxysms about the " Italy of America' ' as it had 
been termed, and it was decided that California possessed all 
the allurements of Paradise — it was then in charming dis- 
tance! But the very name California was romantic and 
fascinating, and enticed the fancy. Meetings of these friends 
attracted others and the home of the Elliotts became too small 
to accommodate the gatherings. Then they met in the con- 
venient freight house of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Indian- 
apolis R. E., where Matthews was employed. 

An organization was effected, it being decided that efforts 
be made to induce at least 50 families to join the project in 
the beginning. 

A co-operative Colony plan was the idea, not a mutual 
sharing plan, but co-operation in beginning the enterprise — 
purchase of land in one body and concerted cultivation of 
each share until divided. 

Pursuant to this plan, Dr. T. B. Elliott was chosen as presi- 
dent; J. M. Matthews, secretary; Hon. J. H. Euddell, treas- 
urer ; Calvin Fletcher as general agent, with J. H. Baker and 
D. M. Berry the other members of the executive committee, 
so named. 

The name of the Colony then chosen was "The California 
Colony of Indiana. ' ' 

A prospectus of this Colony is before me as I write — the 
sole remaining one, and from it I quote : 

"Plan of the California Colony of Indiana 

The Colony is to be started on a basis of Fifty Families, but may 
be increased to any number. A body of land sufficiently large to 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 55 

allow 160 acres of land, and a town lot of two acres, to each member, 
is to be purchased at a cost of about three dollars per acre. 

When the lands are purchased, a certain number of the Colonists 
will be selected to go ahead of the main body, to make arrangements 
for irrigating and cultivating the lands, to plant fences, start a 
nursery of tropical fruit and other trees. 

There will be planted during the first season, five acres of grape 
cuttings — one-half for raisins and one-half for wine, one acre of 
orange trees and twenty acres of wheat, on each tract of land. In 
planting the wheat, however, boundary lines will not be considered, 
but it will be put in, in one tract of say 1000 acres. During the 
second season five acres more of grapes, one acre more of fruit trees 
and twenty acres more of wheat on each tract will be put in, and so 
on each season the number of acres of each variety of cultivation will 
be increased. 

To create a fund to meet these expenses, assessments will be made 
on each member, as follows: June 1, 1873, $10, July 1, 1873, $10, 
August 1, 1873, $10, September 1, 1873, $10— Total, $40, and there- 
after, on the first day of each month, an assessment of like amount, 
or if found necessary, $12.50 per month will be made. 

When the first four assessments have been paid in, the pioneer 
party, composed of one of the executive committee and a Civil En- 
gineer, (member of the colony,) will start for the lands purchased, 
and commence operations at once. This party will be empowered by 
the Executive Committee to purchase implements, seed, etc., and hire 
sufficient labor for the proper cultivation above mentioned. 

All moneys received from the sale of crops will be paid over to 
the Treasurer and applied to the expenses of cultivation, thereby 
largely increasing the area of land brought under cultivation each 
season, and decreasing, if not wholly extinguishing the monthly 
assessments. 

After two seasons of the above described gradual cultivation and 
partial preparation of the lands for those members remaining at 
home, a certain time shall be set, by vote of the colonists themselves, 
for allotting to each member his particular farm and town lot, in the 
following manner, viz: 

As soon as the ' ' pioneer ' ' party arrive on the grounds, they will 
lay off the town into 100 lots of 300 feet square, so that each lot will 
have a frontage on a street, a lot of eight acres being reserved in the 
center for public purposes. Then the farms are to be laid off into 
tracts of 40, 80 and 160 acres. An average valuation by disinterested 
parties, shall be placed upon the farms and town lots, then all those 
subscribing for 40 acres and a town lot, shall have assigned to them 
by lot, one of the 40 acre farms and town lots. If the farm and lot 
are below the average valuation, the member getting such farm and 



56 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

lot shall receive the difference in money ; those getting one of greater 
valuation than the average, shall pay the difference. In like manner 
will the distribution be made of the 80 and 160 acre tracts, among 
those subscribing for 80 or 160 acres. But it is intended that each 
member (classified according to the number of acres subscribed for), 
shall receive a farm and town lot as nearly equal in value as may be. 
After such allotment, all the tools, implements, stock, etc., hereto- 
fore purchased and owned by the colony, shall be sold, and the pro- 
ceeds, together with any other surplus moneys on hand at that time, 
divided equally among the members. 

After this time each member shall cultivate and take charge of 
his own place, the Colony, as an Association being dissolved, unless 
the members shall see fit to continue the organization for other pur- 
poses. 

The following is a list of the members of the Executive Commit- 
tee: 

T. B. ELLIOTT, President. 

J. M. MATTHEWS, Secretary, 

Hon. J. H. RUDDELL, Treasurer. 

CALVIN FLETCHER, Gen'l Agent. 

JNO. H. BAKER, 

D. M. BERRY. 

All those desiring to join the Colony will please apply to J. M. 
Matthews, Secretary, at Freight office of Cincinnati, Hamilton & 
Indianapolis R. R., Indianapolis, Ind." 

The following agreement was to be signed by every 
member of the Colony : 

"Whereas: We, the undersigned have associated ourselves to- 
gether for the purpose of forming a colony for Co-operative Farming 
in Southern California, and for our self government, better manage- 
ment and protection, hereby adopt and agree to the following article 
of Association, viz: 

Article I. The name of this Association shall be The California 
Colony of Indiana. 

Art. II. Any person, of good moral character, who shall be 
accepted by the Executive Committee, shall be eligible to membership. 

Art. III. The affairs of the Colony shall be governed by an ex- 
ecutive committee of six, composed of the President, Secretary, 
Treasurer and three other members of the Association. Any va- 
cancies in the committee shall be filled by ballot. Said committee 
shall have the power to make by-laws from time to time, for the bet- 
ter management of the affairs of the Colony, which shall be binding 
upon all members. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 57 

All expenditures shall be subject to the approval of the commit- 
tee, and they are hereby authorized to make assessments on -the mem- 
bers, either monthly or otherwise, sufficiently large to defray the ex- 
penses of the cultivation of the land ; and we hereby bind ourselves to 
pay to the Treasurer such assessments when called upon, provided 
however that the assessment shall not exceed $12.50 per month upon 
each member. 

We also, hereby bind ourselves to pay as they become due, the 
payments on the land, each member, according to the number of acres 
set opposite his name, said payments to be made through the Treasurer 
of the Colony. 

Art. IV. When the land is purchased a deed for the same shall 
be executed to the Executive Committee, as Trustee, in trust for the 
members of the Colony, who, when the land is apportioned, shall 
execute, to each and every member a good and sufficient deed for his 
apportionment. 

Art. V. No member shall hold more than one hundred and sixty, 
or less than forty acres, besides a town lot. 

Art. VI. No spirituous distilled liquors shall be allowed on the 
lands of the Colony for traffic. 

Art. VII. The Executive Committee shall meet, regularly, once 
a month and oftener if necessary, upon the call of the President." 

The foregoing prospectus setting these facts forth, was 
distributed freely and there were many who signed the agree- 
ment, and I believe Calvin Fletcher secured some members 
outside of Indiana, the Edson Turner family, for example, 
joining from Peoria, Illinois, by his solicitation, or perhaps 
it was that of Kimball, both being active agents. 

Sufficient members had agreed in the summer of 1872, to 
make the project seem guaranteed. A committee composed 
of J. H. Baker, Nathan Kimball and Albert Bruxton — a sur- 
veyor — was chosen to go forth and find the land of milk and 
honey, and to purchase it for the would be colonists. Kimball 
and Berry departed in August of that year, and Baker shortly 
thereafter, going to San Francisco by rail, thence to Los 
Angeles via steamer; there being then no railroad communi- 
cation with Los Angeles; and we find these men soon after- 
ward in Los Angeles busily engaged in quest of the desired 
tract of land. From correspondence with Dr. Elliott, yet in 
existence, it would seem that this advance guard had no easy 
time finding a tract conforming to the requirements. At 
that time much of Southern California was in its primal state, 
almost, the land being held in great ranchos, with few water 



58 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

systems and chiefly used for grazing purposes. The corre- 
spondence referred to shows that San Diego and San Ber- 
nardino counties had been pretty thoroughly investigated, 
and Berry wrote that he "was tired out knocking around in 
canyons, cactus, nettles, jungles, dry river bottoms, etc.," 
adding, "it was no longer funny, and he wanted to resign." 
No wonder, he hadn't yet prospected the right place; that 
was yet to come. 

At one time a tract in San Bernardino County was about 
chosen, and again the Santa Anita ranch (not yet owned by 
Baldwin) was decided upon — 8,000 acres. Then came, as a 
clap of thunder — as one of them expressed it — the financial 
panic of 1873, which knocked the embryo Colony into a 
"cocked hat" for the time being, leaving the prospecting 
agents stranded in Los Angeles with $130 only, in hand ! 

The proposition fell to pieces for the time being. Berry 
opened a real estate office at 30 North Main Street, Los 
Angeles, with one H. C. Wiley under the name of Wiley & 
Berry, and the prospects of the California Colony of Indiana 
looked hopeless. 

Nevertheless, Baker and Berry did not surrender, nor did 
Fletcher, who had also arrived. Kimball went to Utah and 
became Surveyor General of that territory. In the meantime 
other fortune seekers came to Los Angeles in quest of better 
prospects. Among them Jabez Banbury, P. M. Green, A. O. 
Porter, A. O. Bristol, Henry G. Bennett, Calvin Fletcher and 
Thomas F. Croft had come out from Indiana or other places 
and had also busied themselves looking about for suitable 
colony lands. Benjamin S. Eaton had met these men and had 
become interested in their object. Strange to say, the com- 
mittee had not examined the lands of the San Pascual Banch, 
or if they had, gave them no further attention. But Eaton 
believed this ranch possessed the very requisites a Colony 
should have, and invited Berry to his ranch "Fair Oaks" 
(comprising the Allen, the Crank and other lands, as they 
were later known). Berry accepted the invitation and was 
next day driven over the lands of the San Pascual ranch, 
returning to Los Angeles filled with the belief that he had 
found the very spot. True, the price was far beyond that 
originally supposed desirable lands could be purchased for, 
but it was believed a reorganization was now necessary any- 
how, since the original plans had become disintegrated. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 59 

Baker, Bennett, Fletcher and Croft visited and carefully 
inspected these lands and decided they would fulfill their 
desired purpose. 

A meeting was called of interested persons at Berry's office 
on November 13th, 1873. Of the original ' ' California Colony 
of Indiana" only two members were present at this meeting, 
to wit, Baker and Fletcher. It was at this meeting that the 
"San Gabriel Orange Grove Association" was formed, it 
being decided that the old name was not appropriate, hence 
the change. 

THE SAN GABEIEL ORANGE GROVE 
ASSOCIATION 

It having been decided to purchase the interest of Dr. J. S. 
Griffin in the San Pascual ranch, consisting of about 4,000 
acres, the members present proceeded to choose directors of 
the new company as follows : 

B. S. Eaton, A. 0. Porter, D. M. Berry, Thos. F. Croft, 
W. T. Clapp, A. 0. Bristol and Calvin Fletcher. Eaton was 
elected president ; Croft, vice president ; Clapp, treasurer and 
Berry, secretary. 

The capitalization at this time was made $25,000 — to be 
divided into 100 shares at $250 each (this capitalization was 
subsequently doubled and the shares increased to 200). 

It is a fact that not one of these first incorporators were 
farmers, unless we except Eaton, who was also lawyer, en- 
gineer, then rancher — at last. Of course they knew which 
end of a plow to hold, but it is doubtful if some of them knew 
when pumpkins should properly be planted or how to harness 
a horse. But they hoped to learn, and perhaps they didn't 
expect to plant pumpkins ! And the fact did not worry any 
of them in the least, for in truth, California farming was a 
new science even to eastern farmers, and must be learned on 
the soil, and the eastern farmer must reorganize this mental 
slant before he undertakes his pursuit in this land where 
spring begins in December and rivers run bottom side up! 
The doctor, the lawyer, the carpenter and the merchant, felt 
no disqualification because they were compelled to learn a 
new pursuit, rather they were the more eager to begin. 

Following organization, it was determined to open negoti- 
ations for the purchase of Dr. Griffin's ownership in San 



60 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Pascual ranch together with the waters appurtenant to it. 
Thomas F. Croft figured admirably in these negotiations 
because of his tactful management, when all signs pointed to 
a failure because some differences had arisen between Griffin 
and Wilson as to the precise manner of division and separa- 
tion of interests. But all difficulties were finally overcome 
by Croft, and on December 15th, 1873, the agreement was 
concluded as to boundaries ; on December 18th the price was 
determined upon, and on the 26th the purchase was concluded. 

The price was $25,000 for the tract of 3,933.35 acres. One- 
fourth of the money was paid down on the conclusion of the 
agreement, to wit, $6,250, and a note for $18,750, payable in one 
year, given for the remainder. This note and purchase was 
made in Croft's name, he afterwards conveying his title 
thereto to the Association. Thus the San Gabriel Orange 
Grove Association, which was in effect the Indiana Colony, 
as it thereafter, for a time, was known, became titular owner 
and established its foundations on the San Pascual ranch. 
It was believed that but 1500 acres of these lands were suscep- 
tible of farming or fruit growing, as it was not then thought 
that so called "dry lands" would grow fruit of any kind. 
About 900 acres of the lands lay in the Arroyo bottom; the 
balance of the tract, 1,400 acres, was located on the slopes 
above the natural flow of the Arroyo waters and was con- 
sidered practically valueless. 

Figuring upon choice arable land, as then considered, it 
will be seen that the cost of same to the Colony Association 
was seventeen dollars per acre; but deducting the price 
received afterwards for the mesa land, made the cost twelve 
dollars! As a fact, so little value was attached to the high 
lying lands at the time that they were not considered of 
intrinsic worth in the transaction, but "thrown in" with the 
rest! This land is now know as Altadena, and is valued at 
thousands of dollars per acre! 



CHAPTER X 

Getting Busy in the Colony 





AND LO, THE MERCHANT, THE DOCTOR AND THE LAWYER, BEGAN TO TILL 
THE SOIL, AND TO PLANT THINGS. SOME OF THE THINGS THEY 
PLANTED GREW AND SOME DID NOT, BUT COURAGE WAS NOT LESSENED 
THEREBY, NOR ENTHUSIASM DIMMED IN THE DAYS OF THE PIONEER. 

HE title to H 

the lands 

had passed 

into the 

Association 
and from thence to 
the pioneer, who be-, 
came at once eage-f to 
begin his new under- 
taking. Preparations 
were begun according- 
ly, to buy the necessary 
tools, the horses and 
the lumber for the 
settlers' new homes. 
To A. 0. Bristol falls the honor of being the pioneer home 
builder; the first home in the Colony being built and occu- 
pied by him. This house — a three room, rough board and 
"battened" "California house," so called — was begun and 
finished in a week, and occupied February 6th, 1874. It 
was not even white washed, or color washed, outside, but like 
most others of its kind in the Colony days, stood in naked 
ostentation until clambering vines hid its bareness. And it 
stands so today, untouched by the march of progress, just 
where it was built on the Bristol land 43 years ago, on the 
corner of North Orange Grove Avenue (then Mountain Street) 
and Lincoln Ave. Weatherbeaten by the storms of winters 
and suns of summers, its sagging sides appeal in pathetic 
dejection, as if beseeching that protection it deserves. Around 
its abandoned threshold clambers a blooming rose, endeavor- 
ing, as it seems, to hide the decrepitude it covers and defend 

61 



PASADENA'S FIRST HOUSE, Finished Feb. 6, 1874 
(Still standing) 



62 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

it from the too curious eyes of passers by. It was a fair type 
of the pioneer home in the Indiana Colony. 

J. H. Baker was a prompt follower of Bristol, and built 
the second abode of the same kind, on the corner of Walnut 
Street and Fair Oaks Avenue, moving into it sometime in 
February. Colonel J. Banbury began his home on South 
Orange Grove Avenue about this time also, or just prior to 
it, but as he built a real, plastered, eastern style house of 
one and a half stories, it was longer in building, hence his 
family did not move in until about the tenth of March, 1874. 
Henry Gr. Bennett built the fourth home — the California pio- 
neer kind, on South Orange Grove, near Belief ontaine Street — 
occupying it, also, in March, 1874. These are the historic 
facts in connection with the " first' ' homes in the Colony and 
are given here to settle, finally, some late day friendly con- 
troversy upon the subject. Older settlers will remember the 
long row of cypress hedge which led from the street back to 
Banbury's house, growing in time into trees, aiid forming an 
archway of green which might be called a lovers' lane. Per- 
haps it was such when, in later years, other comers occupied 
the premises and blooming daughters attracted the attention 
of languishing swain. But it was not here that the "Banbury 
Twins" made their debut as "marriageable" daughters, they 
being almost too young, then! The Banbury family took 
important place in the pioneer years of the Colony, socially, 
and in public affairs. The "twins" yet live in this land of 
California, their chief unhappiness being that they do not 
reside in their beloved Pasadena. 

Colonel Banbury, who, as will appear, became prominent 
(politically, went into the army at the beginning of the Civil 
War as a private; became a lieutenant after short service, 
and came out of it a full fledged Colonel with a record for 
gallantry and good service. While the Banbury's were building 
their home the "twins" occasionally came over from Los 
Angeles with their father, playing about the place during the 
day, and at times remaining all night. On those occasions it 
was a matter of much alarm with the kiddies when the coyotes 
set up their pandemonium of noise — as they invariably did. 
After a time they got accustomed to these "wild dogs" and 
unafraid. A more interesting event occurred one day when 
an ill appearing Mexican stopped at the place and made some 
inquiries of the Colonel. After he had gone his way it was 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



63 



learned that the Mexican was none other than the notorious 
Vasquez, the bandit, who, with his vicious band of horse 
thieves and cutthroats, had infested Southern California for 
years. He was hung in the Los Angeles jail the year following 
his meeting with Banbury, of whom he fortunately made but 
passing inquiries. 

The Colonists all arrived in due time and began to prepare 
their "ranches" for planting. Most of the lands had to be 
cleared and leveled for irrigation. Some were covered with 
chaparrel, greasewood, sage brush, etc.; in some places open 
and scattering, in others very dense, occasioning much labor 
to clear off. The first year little could be planted that 
demanded irrigation, 
inasmuch as no water 
was piped onto the 
land until the fall of 
1784. Barley, corn and 
such things as would 
grow on "dry" land 
were put in, however, 
mostly as a matter of 
experiment. Prepara- 
tions for bringing the 
waters of the Arroyo 
down to the land were 
begun at once, and a 
reservoir planned, but 
it was not until the fall of that year that this was completed. 

In the meantime the settlers were compelled to carry water 
from the Arroyo in barrels or other receptacles. As it was 
necessary to irrigate the citrus trees from their very planting, 
it will be seen that the planters had no easy job on hand. 
When at last the reservoir was finished and water piped to 
it, a ditch was plowed down Orange Grove Avenue through 
which water was run to those along the way. This primitive 
method was used until pipes replaced it, nearly a year after- 
ward. 

Of course water was too precious to be wasted. Fuel, 
also, was scarce and was provided usually from "wood lots" 
so called, these wood lots being a division of the wooded lands 
in the Arroyo bottoms, which contained a heavy growth of 
brushwood and saplings, alder, sycamore and scrub oak trees. 




HOME OF COLONEL BANBURY 
\, Finished March, 1874 



64 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

These lots contained from three to seven acres and extended 
in narrow strips, entirely across the Arroyo. There was one 
hundred of these, one going with each parcel of the originally 
subdivided lands of the Colony. They were sold in the begin- 
ning at from $20 to $50 each, but the price was later raised 
to $62.50. 

Critics like Myron Hunt and Prof. Damon criticize the 
removal of trees, brush, etc., from the Arroyo, for fuel or 
other uses in those times. Today, no one would contemplate 
such vandalism. But it must be remembered that when the 
Indiana Colony was settled by the Easterners, they had not 
yet studied the question of water conservation. Neither did 
the Arroyo appeal to them as a possible future park. The one 
thing in mind then was the need of fuel and its scarcity here- 
abouts. Of course with more experience came wisdom and 
conservation, just as sedulously practiced in the Colony days 
as now. Orange Grove Avenue as originally mapped was 
laid out with parkings here and there in the center, but pres- 
sure of more important affairs and scarcity of water, led to 
the abandonment of this plan, and the abutting lands were 
absorbed by the owners fronting thereon and the street nar- 
rowed just that much. As one pioneer said, the gophers "beat 
us to it" and preempted the Orange Grove Avenue parks. 

When the lands were laid out, Orange Grove Avenue was 
the main avenue. Colorado Street, Fair Oaks Avenue, Arroyo 
Drive, Mountain Street (now North Orange Grove) and Cali- 
fornia Street — also Sylvan Avenue and Mission Street (in 
South Pasadena) were the only streets laid out in the original 
Colony. 

The Association tract was laid out by Calvin Fletcher, 
who, with an eye to the beautiful, planned Orange Grove 
Avenue with its system of parkings throughout, and other 
things in keeping. Our present day City Planning Asso- 
ciation might find some inspiration in the map devised 
by Calvin Fletcher, which, in respect to Orange Grove 
Avenue and also the Arroyo Drive plan, discovers a fine 
example of esthetic ambitions. Shade trees, usually the pep- 
per, were set out; and cypress hedges adorned the front of 
nearly every home, being also used to show the dividing lines 
between neighbors' property. These hedges, when two or 
three years old, were shaped up and made beautiful street 
borders. The drawback was the labor in maintaining them 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 65 

attractively. Of course the rose received first attention and 
became the qneen of flowers, bnt the tastes of the pioneers 
were as diverse as the means at command and the results 
proved themselves. 

WATER 

Water was a subject of paramount importance to the 
pioneer and affected the progress of the settlement so vitally 
that it must needs have jealous attention. When the lands 
of the Orange Grove Association were purchased, a certain 
apportionment of the waters that came down the Arroyo Seco 
and also all rights in certain springs that rose below the 
Devil's Gate accompanied them. The principal springs above 
were the Tibbetts, the Ivy and the Flutterwheel, flowing alto- 
gether about 90 to 100 miner's inches (summer measurement) 
at the time of the purchase. (A miner's inch equals 13,000 
gallons in 24 hours.) Thus the total water supply equalled 
about 1,300,000 gallons daily flow, from the sources named. 
When the Lake Vineyard Company began operations a divi- 
sion was made according to this apportionment. There were 
other springs, notably the Sheep Corral, and the one that rose 
near the old Garfias adobe house. The Association, preparing 
for its needs, gave first attention to its water supply and 
engaged B. S. Eaton to construct a reservoir and bring down 
the waters to it for distribution. Work was begun at once 
under the guidance of Eaton and others of the executive board 
of the Association, consisting of Calvin Fletcher and O. A. 
Porter. D. M. Berry was the first secretary of the Associ- 
ation and his minutes of the early meetings give brief infor- 
mation of the details that were entered into in this work. We 
find that meetings were held, accounts credited and paid, and 
contracts entered into in a formal business way. The affairs 
of the Colony were conducted by the Board of Directors, which 
of course also controlled the water affairs. Before work was 
finished on the reservoir and the water delivered at every 
tract of land, water had to be hauled from the arroyo as has 
been said. When Bristol was building his house, J. Ii. Baker 
assisted him. One evening about dark, it was decided to go 
to the arroyo, a half mile or so distant, to fetch some water. 
Each took his bucket, and filling it, started back through the 
bushes for Bristol's. Just as they entered the densest part 
of the brush, there broke upon them a frightful, ear splitting 



66 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

roar, as if by an animal in desperate fury. So close it sonnded 
that the men, with one accordant yell, made a dive homeward 
at a pace never before equalled. They arrived, exhausted, 
with emptied buckets! Next morning a sportsman shot an 
enormous mountain lion, just where that mighty noise was 
heard by the two pioneers, and they believed ever after that 
they had a miraculous escape. 

The orange and the lemon, it had been decided by the 
settlers, were the proper trees to plant. Climatic conditions 
warranted this conclusion and profits seemed tempting. 
Stories of extraordinary returns were heard about the orange, 
and these appealed to the imagination — then as now. 

The first orange trees planted in California had been 
planted at San Gabriel by the padres about 1820, the seed 
being brought from Mexico. It is known that the orange 
(seedling) is a very long lived tree, instances being alleged, 
in Italy, of trees five hundred years old, and yet in bearing. 
The Navel Orange was introduced in California by Mrs. 
Tibbetts of Eiverside, who, in 1874, received from W. Sanders 
of the Agricultural Department at Washington, two trees for 
experiment. These trees had come to Mr. Sanders from 
Bahia, Brazil, in 1870. The variety was at first called the 
Washington Navel, but Riverside, upon discovering its value, 
changed the name to Riverside Navel, by which term it was 
long known. This tree, from which the first Navel buds were 
cut for experiment, is now to be seen on the grounds of the 
Glenwood Inn at Riverside. In 1874 there was but a limited 
market for the orange ; beyond local consumption, the excess 
crops were sent by boat to San Francisco, but the freight was 
so high that the net returns were sometimes pretty discour- 
aging. 

In 1876 the first carload of oranges sent east went from 
Los Angeles, over the Southern Pacific railroad — then just 
opened — the freight for same was $500. As the system of 
transporting fruit now in vogue was then unknown, and its 
preservation in refrigerator cars yet to be invented, much 
of the fruit found its market in poor condition, sometimes 
entirely ruined. These were some of the problems that faced 
the incipient horticulturist in the Indiana Colony. It was 
not considered wisdom to ' i trust all their eggs to one market, ' ' 
so peaches, almonds, walnuts and other fruits were planted; 
also vineyards, mostly in Muscat grapes, as it was supposed 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 67 

that the conditions were suitable for raisin making. Many 
lime trees were set out — in hedges chiefly, such hedges serving 
as a wind break and also party lines. The Colonists fell to, 
and studied horticulture, however and wherever they could — 
and practiced it. 

Dr. Elliott has written that at the end of two years the 
Colonists had planted 10,000 orange and lemon trees, about 
7,000 deciduous trees — apples, apricots, peaches, pears, etc. — 
150,000 grape vines and had a nursery stock of over 100,000 
trees besides. Besides, they had planted many pepper and 
eucalyptus trees for street shade and had made some new 
streets. 

When Mrs. Jeanne Carr and Dr. Carr came (in 1880) and 
laid out their beautiful " Carmelita, ' ' the residents found in 
her a student who could be invaluable to them, and was. Dr 
Carr and his wife had been educators in the East; he as a 
professor in medicine, at the Madison, Wisconsin, University, 
and later as State Superintendent of Schools in California, 
with Mrs. Carr as his able assistant. 

Carmelita, a tract of forty-two acres, located on the north- 
east corner of Colorado Street and Orange Grove Avenue, 
became, in course of years, noted for several things ; first, its 
great variety of fruit and ornamental trees and plants — more 
than two hundred in all — which Mrs. Carr had obtained from 
nearly every corner of the world. Again, for the hospitalities 
extended by its hosts to many eminent people, drawn thither 
by the personalities of the owners and as well because of its 
wonderful beauty and interest. In a little log cabin on these 
grounds (still standing, embowered in roses and other flower- 
ing vines) it is said that Helen Hunt Jackson, while visiting 
the Carr's, wrote part of Ramona. Whether this is true or 
not, cannot now be proved, but true it is, that many noted 
people have sat beneath the shade of the grand trees on 
Carmelita and there received the inspiration which comes 
from the contemplation of surpassing loveliness. 

One of the pleasing features of the landscape in the early 
days of Pasadena was the long rows of cypress and laurustinus 
hedges which abounded. These hedges were used in lieu of 
fences, which were practically unknown. Living hedges are 
not so common today. Kept trim and formal, always green, 
they were picturesque and attractive and one of the notable 
features of the landscape. Now and then a rose "fence" or 



68 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

"hedge" added the brilliancy of its color and beauty to the 
picture, relieving the green banks of cypress admirably. Of 
course, these features only came into being after a few years 
of toil and care by the settlers. The tillers had been busy, 
the soil was responding, as was seen by the blooming groves 
and orchards on every side and in a few years vast changes 
ensued. 

It was a splendid, a magical transformation that soil and 
water, combined with brains and hard work, had accomplished 
in a few brief years, but such things are possible — in Cali- 
fornia ! A few years and the stretches of untilled soil of sage 
brush, or heretofore almost barren slopes had become smiling 
orchards, orange groves and green mantling vineyards — best 
of all — Homes ! Not stately villas, not mansions with im- 
posing facades, but just comfortable, even humble dwellings, 
within whose doors dwelt hope and happiness. About their 
thresholds grew roses, and about their gables clambered 
honeysuckles, shedding fragrance everywhere. Trim green 
hedges, neatly kept lawns and other evidences of good taste 
prevailed in the humblest home. In season, the pink of the 
apple, of the peach and the almond blossom, became a billowy 
sea of color, while the snowy white bloom of prune and plum, 
and the golden oranges depending amidst their setting of 
emerald made a picture of rare loveliness and a joy to the 
owner. It was 

"A fair sweet scene of sunny air 
Magnolia scented — sighing through — 
Low drooping vine, with burdens rare 
That heavy humg with diamond dew; 
Of orange groves, whose golden globes 
The summer sunlight sought in vain; 
The cypress with its deep green robes, 
The rolling hills and smiling plain." 

The "village," very small in its first decade, lay still in 
the splendid summer sunshine. A man astride of old dobbin 
rode up to the postomce now and then, for his mail; and the 
postmaster was mighty glad of his "call," for it broke the 
monotony of a quiet day. Down the pathway, where, by the 
green hedge, the pepper trailed its friendly branches and 
etched embroideries in the dust, came rosy cheeked children. 
The mocking-bird sang its melodies from tall eucalyptus and 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 69 

the oriole gave back feeble response. It was the idealization 
of a peaceful existence. 

Yet even with most happy surroundings and prospects, 
the heart of the pioneer sometimes longed for the friends 
and relatives left behind in the old homestead, and yearned 
for a word with them, for a peep at the old farm, or an 
exchange of greetings with a neighbor at the old village store. 

Naturally, the colonists would talk these things over in 
their interchange of neighborly visits, and many tender mer- 
ories were thus revived. A climax to this came when some 
lucky one would set out on a journey "back home." It was 
a matter of interest to all, and gracious Godspeeds were the 
departing benedictions the traveler received; for he or she 
might, in fact, be going right back where they had come from ! 
Then the welcome the wanderers got when they returned! 
Often they were the bearers of messages from the old home 
which gave joy and gladness to the recipient. It was first 
hand ! 

Yet, these visits were satisfying in more ways than one. 
They made the visitor better contented with the newer home, 
and more appreciative of the advantages of it. 

And after all, with years of absence, the old place seemed 
different there! The farm didn't seem so large, the house 
was not as imposing and the weather was so changeable ! Yes, 
indeed, it was different, or it seemed so by comparison with 
this wider horizon. Just the fondness that remained for the 
old friends was as firm as ever. 

Time sped on, finding the pioneer busy with his orchards, 
his groves, and his multitude of petty cares, besides. His eyes 
were forever bent forward to a provident future, but he was 
sometimes cast down by the burdens of the present. The 
orange groves were coming on — they were learning what 
would grow best and how to grow it, for, as I have said, these 
men had to learn the art of growing and the arts of managing 
the things they grew. There is no royal road to fortune, even 
in California! Water was one of the exasperating worries, 
or rather its scarcity was. The winter of 1876-77 was a very 
dry one ; the summer following found the usual water supply 
less copious. Even then, we find there were troubles over its 
delivery and use — there are always the selfish ones who 
demand more than their share, or take it, nolens volens. 
Extraordinary as it may seem, the monthly rate was lower 
at times then, than it has been since. 



70 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Sometimes 75 cents, sometimes $1.00, or on occasions, $1.50 
per month — cheap enough, everything considered. At a 
meeting of the directors of the company, August 7th, 1875, 
Thomas Croft introduced a resolution which read as follows : 

"Besolved, that the members of this Board, being ex- 
tremely anxious to further the interests of the Association 
and morality among our people, do hereby most emphatically 
denounce as acts of lawlessness which should be dealt ivith 
severely, the turning off of the water from the main pipe and 
turning it on again — to the extreme distress of their neigh- 
bors!" So it seems some miscreant was actually stealing 
water! Again, a certain resident was plainly notified, in 
writing, that " unless he quit using water for irrigating with- 
out obtaining consent for it," his supply would be cut off. 
Still another, "that he must come up to the office and settle 
for past dues, or have his supply cut off until he did" — this, 
after several notices to pay up, which he had neglected. So 
it seems there were those who were not always as rule abiding 
as one might desire. 

The income of the Association was not very much in its 
first year or so, sometimes less than $25.00 per month. When 
the Colony became more fully settled, naturally this income 
increased and the Zanjero was paid $50.00 per month and 
the Secretary $25.00. Jabez Banbury, who had been appointed 
first Zanjero, resigned and A. O. Bristol was appointed on 
January 9th, 1875. This was the end of the Association's first 
year. D. M. Berry was secretary then, but was succeeded by 
H. G-. Newton, who continued until November, 1877, when C. H. 
Watts was elected his successor. 

At the annual election of Directors, November 9th, 1876, 
total cash receipts reported were $4,936.00 and total expendi- 
tures $4,578.00. Of this only $600 came from water rentals, 
the balance from the sale of wood lots, of wood, and rent of 
pasture land. The account also showed an extraordinary 
expenditure for pipe, and reservoir repairs (lining). The 
minutes of this meeting recorded nineteen members as present 
in person and was a fair representation of actual settlers 
(families not counted), twenty months after the Colony began 
operations. A. O. Porter was elected President of the Associ- 
ation this year. 

To meet extraordinary expenses it was proposed to 
borrow some money at a Los Angeles bank to make some 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 71 

needed repairs to rotting flumes, and to replace some wooden 
flumes with iron pipes at a cost of $720. But it was reported 
by the President that the bank wanted to charge one and a 
half per cent per month! It was decided to urge all delin- 
quents to pay up their obligations promptly and borrow the 
needed balance, which was done. 

As has been said, the tract of land now known as Altadena, 
had been "thrown in" when the main body was purchased. 
Now, it had been considered that this " sheep land" belonging 
to the Association, might with propriety be divided between 
its members gratuitously. But by 1879, at a stockholders 
meeting, it was decided "that the present financial condition 
of the company did not warrant this," and further that it 
should be sold for $5.00 per acre, if a buyer could be found, 
or "that any stockholder could purchase any reasonable part 
of it at this price. ' ' In 1880, 420 acres of this land were sold 
to S. P. Jewett and P. Gano, at this price, on terms. Then 
on November 20th, 1880, the Board authorized the sale of 937 
acres to Fred J. and John P. Woodbury at the same price, 
and the sale was consummated December 1st, 1880. 

To anticipate the proper chronology of this story, let me 
say here that when the Lake Vineyard Association opened the 
lands lying east of the Indiana Colony tract, its settlers began 
using their share of the Arroyo waters. It was not long before 
differences occurred under the primitive methods of adjusting 
the proper proportions due each colony. Trouble occurred 
which was a long time continued. Whisky and water have 
never been plentiful in Pasadena, but both have occasioned 
painful disturbances. 

Each company had been using the entire waters of the 
arroyo from the supply above the Devil's Gate, three days 
each week, alternately, for irrigation purposes, the assump- 
tion being that each company was owner equally with the 
other. But in 1879 the Lake Vineyard Company raised the 
claim that the Orange Grove Association was only entitled 
to the waters of the so-called "Tibbetts" spring located on 
the east side of the arroyo seco and none of the waters of the 
"Ivy" springs. The claims of the Lake Vineyard Company 
were sustained by a court decision and .further affirmed by 
a supreme court decision in 1880. The Orange Grove Associ- 
ation then paid the Lake Vineyard Company $10,000 to con- 
tinue the rights in these springs which they had always 



72 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



believed they owned. 0. R. Dougherty was president of this 
company until 1891, Henry Gr. Bennett became secretary in 
1881, and continued in that office until 1904, when Wm. 
McQuilling succeeded him. 

Now and then the pioneers met in conclave, that is, held 
meetings to consider affairs affecting their well being. When 
the schoolhouse was built they met there. Again, there were 
informal meetings at neighbors' houses of evenings, when 
neighbors got together, compared experiences and exchanged 
advice. These were the compensations for the severance of 
old home ties, and served to promote that fellowship and 
neighborly regard that has been maintained between the 
pioneers ever since, and ever bids pleasant recollections of the 




SO. ORANGE GROVE AVENUE, 1876 
Looking North from Bellefontaine 

H. J. Holmes' house on left Methodist Church distant 
H. G. Bennett's on fore- center 

ground School under tree 



Mrs. Gilmore 

Presbyterian Church on ex- 
treme right 



1 ' days of seventy-four. ' ' As met the family heads ; also met 
and mingled the young ladies and the beaux, who sat on the 
little veranda viewing the moon and discussing the Pleiades, 
no doubt, as usual. The fragrance of the orange blossoms and 
the roses that clambered around the doorways gave fitting 
incense to the occasion. They sang songs together, and they 
dreamed dreams of years to come, just as is done everywhere. 
Above them the morning glory nodded approvingly and the 
hollyhocks, like sentinels standing by the path that led up to 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 73 

the hospitable door, turned their faces to each other and smiled 
knowingly. On summer nights like these, peace settled down 
on the Colony folk, and if there were troubles by day, night 
and the silver moon, with its serenity and glory, made them 
forget. And then there was always tomorrow ! The dry, dusty, 
rainless summers were an interesting novelty to them at first, 
and the fructifying rains of winter came as a delightful 
change, with the springing verdure, the clean washed atmos- 
phere and clear skies as a benediction and a delight. And so 
life continued as it must, but there was only optimism in the 
Colony. It must succeed ! 

The difference in seasons was a new experience to the 
pioneers from Indiana and Iowa, but they grew accustomed 
to them and finally fond of them. There were no murky, hot 
mornings; the air was clear and sparkling. Sometimes 
though they did crave the rain, a storm with lightning and 
thunder — for it was monotonous at first. When, in the fall — 
in October or November — the sky grew gray with clouds and 
the winds came from the east, the farmer began to look hope- 
fully for the coming of the "wet season.' ' 

There came a night at last when he was awakened by a 
soft patter upon the roof and his heart bounded in gladness, 
for it was raining ! Next morning he gazed out upon his fields 
and at his grove and watched the steady rainfall soak into the 
thirsty soil. And presently the thin stream in the arroyo rose 
higher and higher, and he knew that the rain was coming 
heavily in the mountains and the canyons were gathering it 
up into great streams there. It was winter, and crops were 
being assured and harvests certain. 




CHAPTER XI 

Something About Pests 

the friendly squirrel and the perfidious gopher. the ways of 
the pest in california. 

ND oh, those pests ! The gophers, the squirrels, the 
jackrabbits and the grasshoppers ! The latter pest 
was like unto the celebrated locust in Egypt, as 
related in the Great Book — at least in numbers, and 
in the plague it carried. The grasshopper had an 
appetite voracious and insatiable, and fed upon everything 
green within the radius of its advance, and ate it in a hurry ! 
Before the settler cleared the land of its brushwood, this little 
pest lived the life of quietude within its harborage. But when 
the advancing hand of civilization drove him forth from his 
sanctuary, he resented the intrusion by reciprocally foraging 
upon all growing things the settler planted, and presto, they 
disappeared! Burning the chaparral on uncleared land was 
sometimes resorted to to get rid of grasshoppers, but was a 
dangerous remedy. 

The bark of young trees, even, went the way of the most 
succulent vegetable. It was a common thing to see long rows 
of young orange trees with their tops carefully covered with 
gunny sacks, and their trunks swathed with paper, for pro- 
tection from the predaceous enemies. The festive jackrabbit, 
too, took a hand, or rather his jaws, and finished what the 
grasshopper might overlook, or balk on, as too tough. The 
green bark of the young orange was his joy and his luxury. 
And the gopher! Oh, the gopher! That was the cunning 
little darling with the bright shining baby eyes! The gopher 
caused more profanity than the grizzly bear, just because of 
his insidious cunning, amazing activity and destructiveness. 
Nothing occasioned more trouble to the pioneer than the 
depredations of this rodent. With teeth like a surgeon's saw, 
and a disposition as perverse and destructive as any pest 
created in California, he was a formidable visitor. Burrowing 
faster than a stream of water could chase him, as sly and 
watchful as brer fox, he challenged man's inventive genius 

74 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 75 

to conquer him. Poison and traps and interminable patience 
was the solution, even that was slow. 

The ground squirrel, agile and timid, lives in burrows, 
sometimes in happy domestic association with snakes and 
owls, preying as a rule upon the grain fields. These pests 
mostly migrate with the cultivation of the land, but in the 
beginning of the Colony days, on account of surrounding un- 
cultivated acres, gave much trouble to the settlers. 

THE COYOTE 

It may be a good opportunity here to mention another 
more or less friendly animal of early days, one whose voice 
once so raucous and voluble, has now ceased to trouble in these 
surroundings, he having slunk from sight and sound of noisy 
streets and glittering lights. I refer to the coyote — the wolf- 
dog of the desert and edge of civilization. The coyote is a 
lean and hungry animal. The coyote is in fact a wolf, known 
widely in western states. It makes its nest or cave, in canyons 
or secluded places away from civilization, but prowls at night 
in quest of game — chickens for preference. Also, he is the 
head devil of sneaks with a "voice." Not the ordinary, every 
day, animal voice, but a voice comprising an aggregation of 
voices in one larynx — vociferous, wild, plaintive and compel- 
ling — all at once! One coyote in vocal action is as a half 
dozen, and that number of coyotes is a convention. Their 
habit is to choose a fine moonlight night, when nature is hushed 
and attuned to quiet and harmony, when repose should be 
balmy and peaceful. 'Tis then the coyote would sneak upon 
the outskirts of civilization — in this instance down in the 
Arroyo Seco, or over at San Eafael bluffs, there to emit his 
passionate serenades, seated the while on his haunches with 
nose pointed towards the moon. 

i l Tenderf eet ' ' hearing that demoniac chorus, imagine dire 
tragedies and lose much sleep. But the coyote is a coward as 
well as a sneak, and desires no more than a tender spring 
chicken for his refection, and he not only selects the choicest of 
the flock, but will ruthlessly slay the rest ere he departs. 
Sometimes coyotes have, when badgered by pursuing hounds, 
sought refuge in the streets of Pasadena. I remember once 
that one of them ran, pursued, into the postoffice lobby in his 
fright, and was there captured. This also occurred to a fawn 
that evidently had wandered away from parental attention 



76 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

and got lost. It (the fawn) was safely and tenderly cared 
for by a humane citizen. 

This story is told of a coyote. It happened on the ranch 
of Fred Woodbnry at Altadena, npon which stood a large 
pepper tree whereon turkeys were wont to seek refuge and 
repose o' nights. A coyote — hungry, of course, spied the 
"turks" one evening before it became quite dark. This cun- 
ning coyote knew a thing or two beyond the ordinary. It could 
not climb the tree, and of course the turkey would not come 
down to be devoured. So the coyote just walked 'round and 
'round that tree, its movements being closely watched by the 
gobbler, who never ceased for a moment, to follow him with 
his eyes. The result was that the poor turkey became so hyp- 
notized that it fell off the limb and was picked up by the 
cunning coyote who made off with it ! This story is vouched 
for by Mrs. Jennie Ford. 

These pioneer griefs had their funny side, too, even if 
they were costly and troublesome, and the settlers often 
laughed over their vexations. There were other humorous 
side lights, also. 

INCIDENTS BY THE WAY 

One might smile at the recollection of Henry Bennett or 
P. G. Wooster struggling with the business end of a plough 
in action. Or he may recall with pleased feeling the picture 
of Tom Croft driving his favorite mule team down Orange 
Grove Avenue. But the story that Mel Wood tells on Barney 
Williams gives a pathetic picture that shows how one promi- 
nent citizen of ye olden time engaged in pastoral pursuits. 
One day Mel went down to see Barney and found him busily 
engaged with a frolicky horse attached to a cultivator. It was 
raining pretty hard, but Barney couldn't help that ! Mel was 
amazed to see him, dressed in a "frock" coat and "plug" 
hat ! — discarded garments of better and more fastidious days. 
Every tug of the horse dragged Barney in sudden spasms 
forward, and with each stride the long tailed coat dangled 
against his legs in pathetic dejection. It was a funny sight, 
but there were few to enjoy it. Erstwhile clerks, lawyers 
or merchants, must needs do as others did in those days. 

It is related that a prominent Colonist once built him a 
domicile for his six feet two of stature that was not quite 
equal to its purpose. After it was done he did not have room 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 77 

for all of himself, including his feet, inside of it, so he slept 
with his feet ont of the window! Also, that when he was 
putting the finishing touches to it, he nailed himself up inside ! 
But what could be expected of a schoolmaster turned carpen- 
ter? Perhaps this is not true. It was no opprobrium upon 
the good name of another good man that he endeavored to 
secure olive oil from the tree, just as he had been accustomed 
to procure maple sugar sap in Michigan! Rubber trees are 
tapped for rubber, as are pine trees for turpentine ; why not 
olive trees for oil? 

Charley Watts and Charley Bell were the village "cut- 
ups" — the jokers of the deck, in the early days, and made 
things merry now and then. It is told of Watts that upon 
one occasion, when walking down Orange Grove Avenue, he 
met a nice looking setter dog which stopped at Charley's beck, 
and f riendlily wagged a greeting. Such a fine dog must have 
an owner nearby, though as yet not in sight. Opportunely, 
there chanced by a load of hay, being driven down to the vil- 
lage center — perhaps by Charley Bell — perhaps some other. 
No matter, it was Watt's opportunity for a practical joke, so, 
without the knowledge of the driver of the wagon, Watts tied 
the dog to the tail end of it, and it proceeded on its journey, 
while Charley continued upon his own way. By and by came 
a flustered Englishman with a gun, inquiring very concernedly 
of Watts whether he had seen anything of a " bloody dog!" 
Yes, Watts had seen the very dog ; in fact, he knew it was the 
right dog and it was tied to a load of hay — no doubt stolen 
by the owner of the hay ! And he pointed out to the English- 
man the direction driven by the hay man. Off went the 
Englishman, wrathfully denouncing the dog thief, and in 
course of time found the hay wagon and his dog attached 
thereto in front of Barney Williams' store, the owner of the 
team making some purchases inside, quite unsuspecting the 
trouble in hand. Wrathfully approaching him, the English- 
man demanded why he had stolen his dog? Of course, the 
surprised man could not answer such a question as that, 
and demanded, heatedly, what was meant! There was some 
merry cross-firing before the dog owner pointed out his setter, 
quietly asleep at the end of the load of hay and altogether 
unconscious of the row he had occasioned. There was almost 
a fight, for the Englishman could not understand how such a 
trick could be a "joke," and departed with his dog, calling 



78 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

everybody "bloody fools' ' and similar epithets. Jerry Beebe 
and Al Carr were also merry jokers, and pulled off many of 
the "practical" kind. On one occasion the "Banbury twins" 
with a select few friends blackened their faces, and, driving 
around among the neighbors, serenaded them with "coon 
songs" without having their identities discovered. But in 
spite of all, there were days when the people, at least the 
women folks, were forced into a feeling of homesickness in 
spite of themselves. They missed the conveniences and asso- 
ciations of their old homes in Indiana, or in "Marshalltown!" 
The water was "riley" sometimes, and not infrequently a 
wriggling worm or tiny trout found its way down the pipes, 
and made the good housekeeper pine for civilization. But 
this feeling was but temporary; a look from the door at the 
vast mountains, ever alluring, a peep at the blue skies, and 
the benediction of it was upon them — they became satisfied. 

When R. Williams moved into his new building, Will 
Wakeley secured the one he vacated, and put in a stock of 
hardware and tinware, in which line he was successful. But 
"Billy" later on sold this business and engaged in another, 
more to his liking, to wit a "curio" and taxidermy shop, 
which embraced in its scope the collection and mounting of 
horned toads and tarantulas ; also other specimens of natural 
history — a place of much interest to small boys. 

Which leads up to a story. Some one, with a desire to 
get even with Wakeley 's well known proclivity for practical 
joking, circulated among the school boys, as a piece of news, 
that Wakeley was anxious to add tadpoles to his museum, and 
would pay ten cents a quart for them ! Now be it known that 
in the early days, there was a great crop of tadpoles in the 
muddy reservoirs. It was a happy inspiration to the boys, 
therefore, to go to the reservoirs for the tadpole supply. 
Hence it happened that on the Saturday following the infor- 
mation, came boys, and many boys — each with a bucket or 
convenient receptacle — all loaded with squirming tadpoles! 
It didn't matter that Billy protested, objected, objurgated ; the 
boys continued to come and offer their fine collection of tad- 
poles! When the boys finally realized the "joke," they, one 
and all, just set their buckets full of offerings of wriggling 
"poles" down on the floor and departed! It took some time 
for Wakeley to clear up the premises and dispose of the crop, 
and much longer to recover from the consequences of the 
"joke." 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



79 



There came the first Christmas when all made merry as 
best they could. There was no snow like "back home," of 
course, and it seemed unreal. It did not seem to the children 
that Santa Claus could ever come to them away off here; for 
how could he drive a sleigh where there was no snow? Yet 
they gathered in each other's homes and recounted memories 
of past Christmases and told yarns of the old times. Per- 
haps, this first Christmas, there were some tears shed; but, 
all in all, the first year of the Colony brought with it encour- 
agement and some content; and certainly the hopes of the 
settlers were not diminished even if mingled with some alloy. 




CHAPTER XII— 1874-1875 
Progress — A School 





MISS JENNIE CLAPP 

Pasadena's First School Teacher 



THE FIRST SCHOOL AND A SCHOOLHOUSE. THE FIRST BORN CHILD OF THE 
COLONY. 

HERE were some children, of 
course — not many, but these 
needed instruction and the 
discipline of a teacher. 
There was yet no school, nor 
even any school officials to get them 
one. So, by and by, a meeting of par- 
ents was held — this was the first 
Parent Teachers Association ! — to 
consider what to do. As a matter of 
course, it was decided that a school 
must be had. 

A petition was prepared, addressed 
to the Board of Supervisors, which 
was signed by everyone in the Colony. 
This petition was in due course granted, and a new school 
district, to be called after the name of the ranch — San Pas- 
quale School District — was authorized. Then our old friend 
Thomas Croft — who, though having no children of his own, 
was as much interested as anyone — was named census-taker 
for the new district, while Henry Gr. Bennett and Jabez 
Banbury were appointed school directors. These were the 
first officials in the new Colony, and performed their duties 
promptly and well, as would be expected of them. 

Of course there must be a teacher. The salary must be 
small ; but no matter, there was a teacher right at home who 
would fill the bill — the daughter of one of the settlers, Miss 
Jennie Clapp. The appointment was tendered her and 
accepted, and to Miss Clapp, now Mrs. Frank J. Culver — yet 
living — belongs the honor of being the very first teacher 
employed in the San Pasquale School District. There being 
as yet no building for the purpose, Miss Clapp 's father ten- 
dered the use of a room in his home, and here Miss Jennie 

80 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



81 



opened her school, September 10th, 
1874. The Clapp house was located 
on Orange Grove Avenue, on the 
southwest corner of California 
Street, where the family lived from 
their coming until death claimed 
both Mr. and Mrs. Clapp.* 

Just two urchins with scholastic 
ambitions appeared at the opening 
of the "school" and of course they 
were the "Banbury twins," Jennie 
and Jessie. ' ' But in a short time no 
less than sixteen pupils were enrolled 
and the little parlor became too small 
for them. Once again, the Colonists 
met, as was their custom when affairs 
were to be settled, and it was decided 
that a real schoolhouse must be built. 
Three hundred dollars was soon col- 
lected and in October, 1874, a plain, 
rough board building was built on 
Orange Grove Avenue, close to the Clapp home. This was 
Pasadena's first schoolhouse. Its further history will be 
narrated under the chapter on schools. 

LIST OF COLONISTS WHO CAME IN 1874-75 

During the first and second years of the Colony the pur- 
chasers having settled down to hard work, cleared their lands 
and made a showing of results which may now be counted 
and their names recorded here. These were the real pioneers 
of the first, or Indiana Colony, for it was not until 1878 that 
its sister, the Lake Vineyard Colony, was established. I will 
deal with that in good time. 

Eostee of 1874-75. 




HELEN WENTWORTH, Born 1874 
Pasadena's first baby 



Barcus, W. J., 1874, Ind. 
Barcus, Mrs. W. J., 1874, Ind. 
Baker, J. H., 1874, Ind. 



Baker, Mrs. J. H, 1874, Ind. 
Baker, Edwin, 1874, Pa. 
Banbury, Jabez, 1874, Iowa. 



* " Billy" Clapp, Pasadena's first City Engineer, was the brother of Jennie 
Clapp Culver. "Billy" was a popular and prominent member of the Colony, 
one of the few young men who lived here in the Colony's first two or three 
years of existence. In fact, until the Lake Vineyard Colony was opened up, 
there were very few young men and women among the settlers. 



82 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



Boster op 1874-75, Continued. 



Banbury, Mrs. J., 1874, Iowa. 
Banbury, Jessie, 1874, Iowa. 
Banbury, Jennie, 1874, Iowa. 
Banbury, Morton, 1874, Iowa. 
Banbury, Thomas, 1874, Canada. 
Bennett, Henry G., 1874, Mich. 
Bennett, W. J., 1875, Mich. 
Berry, D. M., 1874, Ind. 
Berry, Jessie, 1874, Ind. 
Bristol, A. 0., 1874, Iowa. 
Bristol, Mrs. A. 0., 1874, Iowa. 

Clapp, W. T., 1874, Mass. 
Clapp, Mrs. W. T., 1874, Mass. 
Clapp, W. B., 1874, Mass. 
Clapp, Jennie, 1874, Mass. 
Conger, Dr. 0. H., 1874, N. Y. 
Conger, Mrs. 0. H., 1874, N. Y. 
Conger, Flora, 1874, N. Y. 
Clark, Geo. P., 1874, R. I. 
Croft, Thos. F., 1874, Ind. 
Cooley, W. E., 1874, Mass. 
Cooley, May, 1874, Mass. 

Dana, A. W., 1874, Mass. 

Edwards, Alex., 1874, Ind. 
Edwards, Mrs. Alex, 1874, Ind. 
Elliott, Dr. T. B., 1875, Ind. 
Elliott, Mrs. T. B., 1875, Ind. 
Elliott, Helen, 1875, Ind. 
Elliott, Agnes, 1875, Ind. 
Elliott, Whittier, 1875, Ind. 
Elliott, Georgia, Ind. 

Fletcher, Calvin, 1875, Ind. 

Gibson, N. R., 1875, Ind. 
Giddings, L. W., 1874, la. 
Giddings, G. L., 1874, la. 
Giddings, E. W., 1874, la. 
Giddings, J. Reed, 1874, la. 
Giddings, Miss (2), 1874, la. 
Green, P. M., 1874, Ind. 
Green, Mrs. P. M., 1874, Ind. 
Green, Miss Mary, 1874, Ind. 
Greene, Frank W., 1874, Mass. 



Hurlbut, E. F., 1875, 111. 
Harry, Wm., 1874, Ind., 
and family. 

Lippincott, T. E., 1874, Pa. 
Locke, Erie, 1874, Ind. 
Locke, Mrs. Erie, 1874, Ind. 
Lockhart, T. J., 1874, Ind. 
Lockhart, L. J., 1874, Ind. 

Matthews, J. M., 1874, Ohio. 
McQuilling, A. K, 1875, 111., 

and family. 
Millard, Elisha, 1875, Ind. 
Mosher, Rev. W. C, 1874, N. Y., 

and family. 
Mundell, I. N., 1874, Ohio. 
Mundell, Mrs. I. N. 

Porter, 0. A., 1874, Ind. 
Porter, Mrs. 0. A., 1874, Ind. 
Porter, Don C, 1874, Ind. 

Raab, D., 1870, 111., and family, 
(not a member of the Colony 

proper) 
Richardson, Geo. A., 1875, Mass. 
Rosenbaum, M, 1874, la. 
Rosenbaum, Mrs. M., 1874, la. 

Strickland, Ney, 1875, Ga. 

Turner, Edson, 1874, 111. 
Turner, Mrs. E., 1874. 111. 
Turner, Bruce, 1874, 111. 
Turner, Charles, 1874, 111. 
Turner, Edson, Jr., 1874, 111. 

Wallace, Joseph, 1875, Canada. 
Wallace, Mrs. J. 

Wallace, Miss E., 1875, Canada. 
Washburn, S., 1874, la. 
Washburn, Mrs. S., 1874, la. 
Watts, Chas. H., 1874, 111., and 

family. 
Wooster, P. G., 1875, Maine. 
Wooster, Mrs. P. G., 1875, Maine. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 83 

Besides those named severa] had purchased property, but 
had not become residents, or had remained but a brief time. 
There were about half dozen of these. 

The Giddings family, also, were not members of the 
Indiana Colony at this period, but owned a large tract on the 
foothills and later became active members of the Indiana 
Colony. 

A daughter of L. W. Hollingsworth, who was the first 
locator in the Lake Vineyard Colony tract, married J. E. Grid- 
dings. Both have grown to be prominent citizens, Mrs. Gid- 
dings having been a president of the Parent Teachers 
Association. A sister, Mrs. W. T. Yore, is the mother of 
Pasadena's second born boy — Jesse. The " first born" of 
Pasadena was Helen Wentworth, daughter of George Went- 
worth. She was born in a house that was located on the 



Pg-.ii ssifcii ii ,• in anai ii i in i 12 T»iJJ aa=ni -_, 



POLYTECHNIC_HIGH SCHOOL GROUP 

Joseph Wallace place, on the northwest corner of Lincoln 
Avenue and Orange Grove Avenue. Little Helen made her 
appearance some time in 1874, exact date unknown, and her 
advent was so appreciated that the colonists raised a fund 
to buy a perambulator for her. She is now Mrs. Earl E. 
Davis and is living in Alaska. The first boy born in the 
Colony was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Watts, a son 
of its first bride and groom. According to the best informa- 
tion, at the end of its first two years of existence, not more 
than 125 persons, including children, were in the settlement. 
Enough to be chummy and sociable, but room for more. 

There were a few families living outside of the Colony 
proper, notably the Wilsons, the Shorbs, the family of James 
Craig, who lived at "The Hermitage/ ' near Lamanda Park, 
and which later became prominent in the Colony, as were the 
Wilsons and Shorbs. There was also the Titus family, the 
Winstons, the Stonemans and a few others. These, then, were 



84 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

literally the " first families" of the Indiana Colony — not con- 
sidering, of course, the Indian aboriginals ! 

They were not proud and haughty over the fact, because 
they had not occasion to "put on family airs." They wel- 
comed with delight the coming of new families, who might 
add to the social pleasures and lighten the monotony of pio- 
neer life. It is a pleasant thing to relate that many sons and 
daughters of these "first families" have maintained their 
fealty to Pasadena and have steadfastly remained to see its 
evolution from a sheep pasture to a splendid municipality. 




CHAPTER XIII 

Choosing a Name 




THE COLONY, HAVING OUTGROWN ITS SWADDLING CLOTHES AND HAVING 
A POST OFFICE OFFERED TO IT, MUST PERFORCE CHOOSE A FITTING 
COGNOMEN WHEREWITH TO MAKE ITS CLAIMS BETTER KNOWN. 

|HE name Indiana Colony i; 

had to go. The postoffice 

department demanded a 

more fitting one when the 

colonists requested a post- 
office. Also, the colonists themselves 
believed by this time that the "Col- 
ony" might — some time — become a 
" village,' ' or even a "town!" The 
question was mooted among the pio- 
neers and a meeting called to decide 
the matter at the schoolhouse. This 
meeting was held April 22d, 1875. 
This meeting, also, seems to have 
considered other business, as the 
minutes show. 

The question of dividing the 
Arroyo lands into "wood lots," a much discussed question, 
also came up for settlement, and the minutes state that "after 
a lengthy discussion in the torrid, temperate and frigid 
zones," the division of said lands was approved by a vote of 
119 shares (of stock) in favor to 21 against. President Eaton 
presided and D. M. Berry was secretary of this important 
meeting. 

The Origin of "Pasadena" 

When the question of a proper name for the Colony came 
up for settlement ; in fact, it had been mooted for some time 
and had occasioned much discussion, "New Grenada" was 
suggested by a lover of Irving, and "Indianola" by a Hoosier 
— a not inappropriate name for a Hoosier settlement. D. M. 
Berry, secretary of the association, was for "Muscat!" What 

85 




DR. T. B. ELLIOTT 

who named Pasadena 



86 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

a burden that would have been upon us! Berry, who was 
fond of classics, also suggested a Greek work, "Kleikos," 
dropping the letter "g" from Kleigkos. Perhaps this was a 
joke of Berry's, but as a fact I have seen a letter of his urging 
this very name — and the letter is quite serious in other 
respects. 

But, happily, there was one who believed that a name of 
Indian derivation would at least be appropriate ; therefore, he 
wrote to a college friend in the East soliciting assistance. 
This man was Tuttle Smith, whose father had been a mis- 
sionary among the Indians of Minnesota. The reply to this 
request was lost for thirty-one years, but finally discovered 
among the papers of the Orange Grove Association by Wil- 
liam McQuilling in 1905. Then it was again mislaid for a 
number of years, and but recently rescued. Fortunately, 
therefore, I am able to give this letter, now a valuable histor- 
ical document, to the readers. 

When this letter was submitted to the stockholders, and 
fully considered, a vote was taken which resulted in seventeen 
voting in favor of Pasadena and four against it. Thus was 
the colony presented with a new title under whose banner it 
has since pressed forward. 

Lettek of Prof. Geokge N. Smith, Coining the Name 
"Pasadena" * 

Northport, Mich., April 13th, 1874. 
''Son Tuttle: 

I have taken considerable pains to get up answers to your question 
with the following result, but I am not satisfied you will find any 
acceptable name. 

Crown of the Valley, Weoquan, Pa-sa-de-na — a rather agreeablf 
name if you get the right sound and accent. I think I have marked 
it so that you can. 

Peak of the Valley, Gish ka de na — Pa-sa-de-na. 

Key of the Valley, Ta pe ka e gun — Pa-sa-de-na. 

Hill of the Valley, Pe qua de na — Pa-sa-de na. 

Cap same as Crown — Rostrum is not known in the language. 

The principal accent falls on the last syllable of each word, the 
marks indicating vowel sounds should be left off ; as a name. I should 
like the first, or the last, better than the others. 

There is no difference between Ottowa and Chippewa in these 
words, the Chippewa and jib way are convertible names, different 
ways of spelling by different writers. The Indians speak it Ojibwa, 

* Written to Tuttle Smith by his father, Geo. N. Smith, to whose erudition 
we owe the name Pasadena. 




CORRECTIONS 

On page 86, through inadvertence, proper credit has not been given 
Dr. T. B. Elliott for his part in the selection of the name Pasadena. 

Dr. Elliott was the correspondent of Tuttle Smith and it was to him 
that the letter on page 86 was written. 

Through this correspondence, as related, we are indebted to Dr. 
Elliott for the happy cognomen that Pasadena bears, and therefore our 
endless gratitude is his. 

Page 440, read Charles Coleman instead of Theodore (his father) 
as president of the Tournament Association for 1903. Theodore Cole- 
man was then a director and continued as such for several years. 



Page 476, eligibility to membership in Pioneer Society, read "Dec. 
31, 1883" instead of 1884. 






PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 87 

the initial slightly spoken, jib strong with i inclining towards our 
English I — the main accent on wa. 

The more I speak over the samples I give you, the more I am 
satisfied that either of the 4 would make an agreeable name. Either 
when spoken correctly would fall pleasantly on the ear. If I could 
give you the living example of the peculiar Indian mode of speak- 
ing the words, you would be able to appreciate them fully and I 
hope you will succeed from this paper. Write and let me know all 
about the matter. 

Most sincerely, 

Geo. N. Smith. 

Professor Smith chose well and the Pasadenans of today 
must accord him the obligation that is due him for choosing 
this highly distinctive and euphonious name for posterity. 
No less than three other aspiring towns have pirated it from 
us. Such is fame ! 

We have a broad field and some difficulty if we attempt to 
arbitrarily determine the exact meaning of the word. Pasa- 
denans in later years have attempted to do so by adopting 
" Crown of the Valley" as having the best and most appro- 
priate interpretation. Bearing further on this appropriate- 
ness it may be said that, according to Judge Eaton, Don 
Manuel Garfias, when owner of the ranch, gave his hacienda 
the title "Llave del Valle" — which signifies "Key of the 
Valley" and refers to the fact that his hacienda was so located 
that he could take note of the cattle passing from one part 
of the ranch to the other. Thus his house was "Key" to 
what went on there. At one time, also, this ranch was on the 
route of the Mission travel, the road from the San Gabriel 
to San Fernando passing over it — crossing the hills of San 
Rafatl, thence via Canada onward. 



CHAPTER XIV 

The Fiest Churches — Getting On 




AFTER THE SCHOOL CAME THE CHURCH, ONE GOOD FOR THE INTELLECT, 
THE OTHER GOOD FOR THE SOUL, BOTH THE USUAL APPENDAGES OF 
PROGRESS. THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN AND THE FIRST METHODIST. 

HE pioneers, as they became settled and moved along 
in a regular daily orbit, with habitual and constant 
avocations, with prospects cheering and crops 
maturing, bethought themselves more and more of 
past habits and customs. Having, mostly, been 
trained in the good old habit of going to church o' Sundays, 
they now missed that practice and began to feel that it was, 
after all, an essential thing to their well being. They had 
their little school; they must also have a church, or at least 
a place of meeting where Sabbath services might be conducted. 
So it was appreciated when the Rev. W. C. Mosher, a mis- 
sionary and a resident, announced his intention of conducting 

religious services upon 
a certain Sabbath day. 
"Charley" Watts had 
done a serious thing; 
/ ~ he had donated his 

7w % bachelor cabin for this 

purpose. And it was 
in this cabin, located at 
the present northeast 
corner of Kensington 
Place and Orange 
Grove Avenue, on Au- 
gust 30th, 1874, that 
the first religious serv- 
ices in the Colony were 
held. 

There were pres- 
ent, besides the rever- 
end gentleman and his 
spouse, M. Rosenbaum 




FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



1875 
88 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



89 



and wife, August Blix and wife, William T. Clapp and Miss 
Jennie ; just eight persons all told. History does not say, but 
perhaps " Charley" Watts was also present, in a secluded 
corner, and again, perhaps, he was out at the barn "fixing 
things, ' ' for ' ' Charley ' ' was rather careless of Sundays ! This 
little service was the precursor of the many splendid church 
organizations that were to follow. 

Succeeding to this beginning, two or three more meetings 
were held at the Watts home ; then the Mo slier home, at the 
corner of Walnut and Fair Oaks, being ready (he had pur- 
chased it from J. H. Baker, who in turn purchased in another 
place), the Reverend Mosher arranged to have the meetings 
held in his own home, which they accordingly were. Then, 
when the schoolhouse was finished at the end of the year, it 
was decided to hold services therein; the first meeting being 
held February 7th, 1875, Eeverend Mosher conducting it, the 
first formal sermon being then delivered. Sunday school 
services had also been conducted at the Mosher home by W. T. 
Clapp and D. H. Pike ; Clapp being a Congregationalist, Pike 
a Methodist and Mosher a Presbyterian — a cosmopolitan trin- 
ity. The second sermon was preached by Rev. Solomon 
Dunton, known as "Father" Dunton, the father of Mrs. Jabez 
Banbury. Dunton was 
a Methodist, but no re- 
gard was paid to sec- 
tarian dogmas in these 
early day sermons. 
The attendance now 
assured a permanent 
congregation and reg- 
ular services were held 
each Sabbath, Dunton 
and Mosher alternat- 
ing. 

On March 21st, 
1874, the First Pres- 
byterian Church was 
organized at a meeting 
held for the purpose in 
the little schoolhouse. 
Twenty-two persons 

<a i o-n p (\ as rnpmhpr^ FIRST METHODIST CHURCH 

S 1 g n e Q db memUeiS. Dedicated Jan. 7, 1877 




90 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Plans were at once made to raise funds to build a church 
building, which were duly secured,* and the edifice erected on 
California Street, just west of Orange Grove Avenue. A par- 
sonage was also built on an adjoining lot in 1877, costing 
$1,800. The row of cypress planted in front of this church 
and parsonage are yet standing, now grown to trees fifty feet 
in height, and having a girth of four feet or more. (See 
Chapter XXXVI for further details of this church and its 
subsequent history.) 

Another Church — The First Methodist 

If the Presbyterians must have a church, why not the 
Methodists also? That is what the Methodists thought in 
1875, and acted accordingly. 



The colonists had worshiped together in the schoolhouse, 
and we have seen how the Presbyterians struggled, and finally 
obtained a place of their own to worship in. They invited 
all of their fellow colonists to join them in the new house of 
God, but the Methodists were themselves becoming husky in 
numbers, and they, too, cast about for means to build their 
own house of worship, and have services and discourses suit- 
able to their own ways. They held services in the school- 
house on alternate Sundays with the Presbyterians until the 
latter moved to their own church. After the Presbyterians 
foregathered in their own brand new meeting place the attend- 
ance upon the Methodist meetings was of course diminished, 
but none the less enthusiastic. In pursuance to the desires of 
this body, the Eev. J. M. Campbell had come over from Los 
Angeles, where he was ministering to a flock, and organized 
a class of eleven members, on April 18th, 1875. This class 
was as follows : 0. A. Porter and Mrs. Porter, D. H. Pike 
and Mrs. Pike (it will be noted that D. H. Pike had been a 
trustee in the Presbyterian congregation), P. M. Green and 
Mrs. Green, W. J. Barcus and Mrs. Barcus, I. N. Mundell and 
Mrs. Mundell, Elizabeth Edwards. Mundell was made class 
leader. Eev. F. D. Bovard began regular services on the 
"Methodist" Sunday in place of Campbell on July 18th, 1875. 

* The first money raised, $600, was lost by a bank failure in Los Angeles, 
but after a struggle $2,300 more was raised, which was the cost of the church 
when finished. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



91 



On October 21st, 1875, the committee appointed to the task 
reported progress in the matter of funds, etc. P. M. Green, 
D. H. Pike and Rev. Charles Shilling composed this committee, 
and so successful did they labor that in a short time a lot 
was purchased on Orange Grove Avenue, north of California 
Street (corner of Palmetto), and a modest edifice finished, 
without debt, January 7th, 1877, and dedicated that happy 
day. (Further history in chapter on churches.) 





CHAPTER XV 

The Lake Vineyard Tract — A Sister Colony 

A RIVAL OF THE INDIANA COLONY APPEARS AND IOWA SENDS IN SOME 
STRENUOUS MEMBERS TO HELP MAKE HISTORY. ESTABLISHMENT 
OF THE LAKE VINEYARD COLONY AND THOSE WHO FOUNDED IT. 

HESE chronicles have endeavored to faithfully follow 
the trend of events concerning the original colonists 
and their Colony enterprise, finding them at the 
end of two years as happy as bunnies in a clover 
field, with a schoolhonse and two churches already 
to their credit. What better evidence of foresight and pros- 
perity need one ask than this ? 

They had tested the climate and found it fine; they had 
tested their neighbors and learned to love them; the orange 
trees had begun to show by extending foliage the result of 
affectionate care, and the roses had begun to bloom about 
their doorways and clamber over trellises. Also, the gophers, 
grasshoppers and other "friendly" pests began to respect 
the aggressive precautions of these strange invaders. So I 
will leave them, temporarily, to narrate the founding of a 
sister Colony, which in time became united to and assimilated 
with the parent one. 

Beyond the boundaries of the Orange Grove Association's 
Colony lands on the east, to wit, Fair Oaks Avenue, which was 
but a rough and uncertain pathway, occasionally used, 
stretched the balance of the San Pascuale ranch as far as the 
Santa Anita road and in 1876 uncultivated, being used only 
as a pasturage. There was no break in this stretch of land 
until reaching James Craig's "Hermitage" on the northeast, 
excepting the Wilson, Titus, Rose and Winston ranches to 
the south. The Eaton Fair Oaks ranch was north of the 
Craig ranch, but there were no intervening settlers in this 
unfilled range. It was a beautiful spread of lordly acres, 
with its scattering live oaks giving it the appearance of a 
park. No water had as yet been wedded to these lands and 
they were called "dry" in the nomenclature of current 
description. By 1875 all of the supposed cultivable lands of 

92 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 93 

the original Orange Grove Association had been disposed of. 
But new arrivals came, drawn hither by reports of the success 
of the Colony, and by reason of the attractiveness of the sur- 
roundings. 

B. D. Wilson owned the unimproved lands above referred 
to excepting the Grogan lands, and it seemed that the time 
was opportune for selling some of them to these newcomers 
who were arriving from Iowa, Kansas and Illinois, and who 
were nosing about for fertile soil where there might be found 
a proper settling place. Wilson decided to accommodate this 
demand. He had laid out Alhambra and began its career 
satisfactorily; why not another undertaking? He took his 
son-in-law, J. De Barth Shorb, into executive session, and 
made him his manager and agent. Early in 1876, Wilson set 
aside 2,500 acres immediately adjoining the Indiana Colony 
on its eastern boundary, and called the tract "The Lake Vine- 
yard Land and Water Company Tract. ' ' Truly, a ponderous 
name, derived partly from his own home place, the suffix 
meaning that it had incorporated into the project a water sys- 
tem with the land. Until Pasadena became incorporated this 
tract was known generally by the shorter and more convenient 
title of "Lake Vineyard Tract. " This land was surveyed 
into five, ten and twenty acre parcels ; water was brought from 
the Arroyo Seco (it will be remembered that Wilson yet 
owned seven-tenths of these waters) and piped to the land; 
and it was offered to settlers for from $75 to $100 per acre. 

J. De Barth Shorb handled the business end of the transac- 
tion. Let me here note that one of the first men to be 
employed in this subdivision was "Tom" Banbury (nephew 
of Colonel J. Banbury). "Tom" liked the prospect and nego- 
tiated with Shorb for ten acres of the land before it was 
actually on the market. This was in December, 1875, and he 
thus became the original owner in the Lake Vineyard subdivi- 
sion. The water question gave some trouble, for it was not 
yet properly piped when buyers began to settle upon their 
lands. C. C. Brown, for so many years identified with this 
water system, informed me that it was his frequent cus- 
tom in early days to take a "chink" (a Chinaman) with him, 
and walk along the main supply ditch, picking out of it dead 
snakes, gophers and, occasionally, a defunct canine. But the 
water was there, such as it was, the principal hurry being to 
get the land and look out for the water afterwards. (These 



94 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

men learned more wisdom by later experience.) "Tom" 
Banbury's land was located where the Pasadena Manufac- 
turing Company's plant now is. In fact, Banbury planted 
that very spot to ' ' spuds ' ' in 1876, and this was the first actual 
farming done on that tract. L. D. Hollingsworth was the 
next buyer, and secured fifty acres for himself and other 
members of his family, his son Henry choosing ten acres 
where the Wilson grammar school stands, his own choice 
being on the northeast corner of Colorado Street and Marengo 
Avenue. Colorado and California streets were opened 
through the new Colony eastward, when it was laid out, and 
Marengo Avenue was opened at the same time, the latter being 
the first north and south street in the Lake Vineyard Tract 
that was opened for travel and improved. 

Hollingsworth's lands extended from Fair Oaks Avenue 
eastward to Euclid Avenue, on the north side of Colorado 
Street. He built a rough "California" house on a tract he 
also bought on South Marengo and Green Street, the first 
house built in the Lake Vineyard Tract. The Hollingsworth 
family lived there with their daughter, Mrs. Nellie Vore, until 
they built their own home about where the postoffice is now. 
W. 0. Swan and Charles Legge came, and also bought, being 
in a "pool" that Hollingsworth had formed to obtain the land 
at a reduced price. Legge secured the twenty acres of which 
the Library Park was once a part. Colonel Banbury bought 
Hve acres on the southeast corner of Marengo and Colorado 
for his son Morton, and also ten acres for his father-in-law, 
Rev. S. Dunton, whereon now stands the old Throop College, 
the Universalist Church, etc., and built a good house upon it. 

Reference has been made in connection with the earlier 
church services of the same "Father" Dunton, as he was 
affectionately called, and it is a fitting place here to tell a 
"yarn" about this goodly old gentleman, prefacing it with 
the information that he was one of the beloved old men of the 
Colony days, and as trustful and trusting as a baby. But he 
had just one weakness — some may call it a "sin" — he chewed 
tobacco! Just plain, old-fashioned "niggerhead" or such, 
and he chewed it with an energy and constancy born of long 
habit. Seldom, indeed, that "Father" Dunton had not his 
"cud" in his cheek. Upon a certain occasion in the later 
history of the Colony he attended a revival service at the 
Methodist church and was one of the most fervid worshipers 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 95 

present. Eev. P. F. Bresee was the dominie in charge of the 
services, and any one who knew him will recall his uncompro- 
mising attitude to sinners. On this occasion he was preaching 
against the sinfulness of bad habits in general. At each char- 
acterization, made in a stentorian voice, the Reverend Dunton 
emitted an approving and emphatic "Amen!" The reverend 
preacher stormed against backsliding. "Amen!" shouted 
Dunton. Against the frivolities of social life. "Amen!" 
again exclaimed Dunton. * i God punish the wicked who imbibe 
intoxicating drink." "Amen! Amen!" came once again in 
resounding approval from "Father" Dunton, and with it an 
approving thwack of his hands. "And, Lord, chasten those 
who defile themselves and defy Thy law by using tobacco!" 

The Reverend Solomon's hand had been upraised in order 
to give additional emphasis to his approving "Amen." But 
it remained suspended in the air; his exclamation died in a 
struggling gurgle, languished amidst the "cud" stowed away 
for safety in his cheek! A convulsive, strangling noise 
expired in his throat as his hand slowly descended, while his 
head was bowed in humble embarrassment. There were no 
further demonstrations from his corner that night. It is not 
reported that the old gentleman ceased using the "weed," but 
doubtless he refrained when under the Reverend Bresee 's eye. 

Let us again return from the diversion of a story to the 
doings of the Lake Vineyard .Colony. Among the early set- 
tlers was Henry Hollingsworth, who took ten acres. Sherman 
Washburn bought five acres on the southeast corner of 
Marengo and Colorado Street — where the Brockway block was 
built in 1887. I believe Charley Bell purchased the five acres 
from Washburn and set it out to orange trees in 1877 or 1878. 
It became, subsequently, the property of Judge Magee, who 
sold it in the early boom days. Colonel Banbury also pur- 
chased for his boy Morton a five-acre tract on the southeast 
corner of Marengo Avenue and Colorado Street where the 
Methodist church stands. The original purchases were made 
at the exceptional price of $55 per acre, on account of an 
agreement with Hollingsworth that he would interest a num- 
ber of his Iowa friends and dispose of considerable other 
lands through this influence, which he did. The regular price 
was fixed at from $75 to $100 per acre ; water, of course, being 
included. This is the "pool" referred to. B. D. Wilson was 
an enterprising man, and when the tract was laid out he set 



96 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

aside a tract of five acres on the southeast corner of Fair Oaks 
and Colorado Street for school purposes and thereby created 
a "village center.' ' 

P. G. Wooster also came along — from Boston — in 1876, and 
bought nine acres on Fair Oaks Avenue on which now stands 
the Hotel Green and the Santa Fe station. Albert Ninde took 
twenty acres and Stephen Townsend also took ten acres. I 
believe these above named were the first purchasers on the 
Lake Vineyard Tract, in the order named. Hollingsworth 
built a good residence on the corner of Marengo and the 
others followed his example by improving their selections also. 

As the new Colony became settled it became a rival to the 
original Colony. Fair Oaks Avenue was the "Mason and 
Dixon" line of separation, but the rivalry was a friendly 
rivalry, and although the east and west side conducted their 
Colony affairs on a separate basis, there was no other than 
amicable relations manifested.* Of course, when the little 
first schoolhouse was removed from its Orange Grove Avenue 
home to the land donated by Wilson there was some friction, 
and again was this felt when the original church was moved. 
But these differences were soon forgotten in the events which 
came pressing forward. The new Colony soon numbered 
more people than the old, and its people cast about for a 
"village center," where marts of trade might be established. 
L. D. Hollingsworth took the initiative by building a little 
store, in 1876, on Colorado Street, near Fair Oaks. It had 
been his intention to build this nearer his Marengo Avenue 
home, but finally decided upon the former place on account 
of the proximity to the new school lot. Another reason was 
that this location would be more convenient to the "west 
siders, ' ' and everything counted. A movement had been made 
by this time to get a postoffrce, and it was hoped to locate it 
in the new store. This was not the first store in Pasadena, 
the first, a small structure, was built (of common rough 
boards) by M. Rosenbaum on Orange Grove Avenue, just 
south of Colorado Street, where he owned a fifteen-acre orange 
grove. Rosenbaum had been in business in San Diego, going 
there from Marshalltown, Iowa, where he had lived an ener- 
getic business life and had been at one time postmaster. He 
moved his stock of goods (books and stationery mostly) to 

* In later years some feeling was engendered over the segregation of the 
arroyo water, but no personal unfriendliness became manifest. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 97 

the Colony, and thus started Pasadena's very first store. This 
business was not continued long, and the building was after- 
ward used as a Chinese laundry until it was removed in 1887. 
The Hollingsworth store became the nucleus of the new busi- 
ness center. Henry T. Hollingsworth occupied a corner of 
his father's store with a jewelry repairing outfit. When a 
postomce was eventually established Henry T. Hollingsworth 
became the first postmaster — at the munificent salary of $12 
per annum! As usual with budding villages, the postomce 
centralized business, and this, together with the arrival of the 
schoolhouse just across the street, induced J. H. Baker to 
move his shop from his place on Fair Oaks Avenue and Wal- 
nut Street, where his forge had been established, "under the 
spreading (pepper) tree," to a location next door to the Hol- 
lingsworth store; then, also, was added a shoe shop, 0. R. 
Dougherty, later J. D. Youngclaus, proprietor. Thus around 
the coming "center" we find a schoolhouse, a forge, a shoe 
shop and a general store, clustering in business solidarity. A 
meat shop, owned by W. G. Watson, was started on North 
Fair Oaks soon after the above operations, and we find their 
proprietors looking keenly forward to a provident future. 
Sherman Washburn bought Hollingsworth 's store in 1877, 
and continued it until 1880, when Eomayne ("Barney") Wil- 
liams purchased it. 

How unfortunate it was that Colorado Street was not made 
wider then! But no thought was entertained at that period 
of Pasadena ever becoming even a town. Efforts were made 
to induce "Barney" Williams to move back his building, in 
1885, but without avail. Marengo Avenue was opened when 
the Lake Vineyard Tract was laid out and the great pepper 
trees, which have excited so much admiration and attracted 
the attention of so many cameras, were planted at the same 
time. This avenue received its baptismal name from the 
Marengo ranch — later Bacon ranch, and later still (in part) 
Raymond Hill. It was at one time owned by a soldier of 
Napoleon's army who had fought in the battle of Marengo, 
and who had, in memory of that great battle applied its name 
to his ranch. 

Good old Fra Crespi knew better than his Gringo succes- 
sors when it came to euphony and poetic fitness in names ; no 
dissonant vocabulary was his. Blessings, too, upon those who 
gave us such street names as El Molino, Los Robles, Los 



98 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Flores and San Pascuale! In a land where romance throbs 
and sentiment grips the mind, the beautiful and melodious 
shonld ever attend, when it comes to the dispensations of the 
baptismal font. Who could imagine an Amazon Lucille, or 
a fairy with the cognomen Belinda or Bedelia? Spain has us 
beaten in such sweet names as Carmencita, Eamona, Dolores 
or Juanita. 

But not to dally in elusive pathways, let us proceed with 
the trend of affairs. The settlement of the new Colony con- 
tinued, and many homeseekers came in 1876 and 1877. In 
the former year came S. D. Bryant with his family, including 
Herbert; the latter first settling on the Orange Grove side; 
Mrs. Euth Martin with her sons, Clarence and William; J. 
Blattenburg and family; also Al V. Dunsmoor. F. H. Hey- 
denreich came with his wife in 1877. "Steve" and Will 
Townsend and Butler Clapp came in 1876; the former set- 
tling in the Lake Vineyard Tract and the latter on the west 
side. 

It would be a pleasant pastime to recount the names and 
expatiate upon the virtues, the energy and industry of the 
early comers who laid the foundations, planted the first trees 
and flowers, and hung their latch strings outside as a friendly 
invitation to all comers. As the trees and vines grew and 
became fruitful they looked with pride and good cheer at the 
surroundings, and said, "It is good!" For, said they, under 
such a benignant heaven, amidst such loveliness, why should 
the spirit of mortal feel aught but concord with the world 
and its inhabitants ? 

The Lake Vineyard Colony throve and "came on" even 
faster than did its older sister. There was more land avail- 
able under the water system, for one thing, even if it was 
in the beginning discouraging in its prospects. The outside 
lands, the so called "dry" lands, were being settled upon by 
bolder ones who "took a chance" with a will, and did, in fact, 
find water at 100 to 150 feet, which was good and pure, and 
in sufficient quantity for household purposes. It was discov- 
ered, also, that this land would grow some crops without irri- 
gation and that trees and vines would thrive; and though 
"dry" land could be bought for as low as $25 per acre, it 
came to be worth $150 long before the boom sent prices sky- 
ward. Berries of all kinds grew lustily, as did vegetables, 
with little extra cultivation, and very little irrigation, even 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 99 

during the long, dry summers. I believe such men as Henry 
Wood and Samuel Bundy were pioneers in this direction, culti- 
vating large tracts on East Villa Street. Henry Wood 
planted twenty acres in eucalyptus trees on his ranch on Villa 
Street in 1883; the trees grew eighteen feet in the first year 
and forty-five feet in three years. In three years he cut out 
every alternate row and sold the wood. No irrigation was 
used on these trees and their rapid growth drew attention to 
the excellence of "dry" lands. 

The Olivewood Tract was established by C. T. Hopkins 
in 1880 under the management of C. C. Brown, who set out 
olive trees and vines, also orange trees, and brought them 
into a high condition of culture. The tract was one of the 
first offered at auction in 1886. 




CHAPTEE XVI 

Settlements About Pasadena — The Painter and Ball Tract 





HOW A BODY OF LAND THAT WAS ONCE REGARDED AS ALMOST VALUELESS 
ACQUIRED IMMENSE WORTH AND MADE THE FORTUNES OF TWO 
SPECULATORS IN A SHORT TIME. 

|YIN<x immediately north of 
the lands of the two settle- 
ments aforesaid was a 
tract of land comprising 
abont two thousand acres. 
It was so called "dry" land, covered 
in the main with sage-brush and 
chaparral, and in its rough state not 
apparently very attractive for home 
building. It was the property of one 
H. G. Monk, who lived in New York, 
and probably scorned his own pur- 
chase, for he did not return to Pasa- 
dena after purchasing it upon his 
first visit, for many years. In fact, 
when an Eastern friend who had 
seen it went to him to pay his price — 
then $18 per acre — for it, Monk dis- 
suaded the intended purchaser from 
doing so, declaring that he couldn't 
take advantage of a friend, as the 
land wasn't worth anything ! This is the story that Monk told 
upon himself when he visited Pasadena twenty-five years 
afterward. 

Some water rights were appurtenant to the land, but they 
were not developed and of uncertain value. Monk had sunk 
a well, but it was of little value. J. H. Painter and B. F. Ball, 
old-time friends and neighboring farmers in Iowa, and even 
prior to that in Ohio, had come to Pasadena to look for oppor- 
tunities, joining here the Iowa contingent. They were 
attracted to this land as a possible speculation and as good 
for settlement, and in 1881 they bought it for $15 per acre — 

100 



EAGLE ROCK 
Note the Eagle's Beak 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 101 

water rights and all! Energetically they set to work laying 
out streets, developing the water supply and bringing it 
down to a reservoir which was built at a convenient distrib- 
uting point. They expended $20,000 in this manner and made 
their tract a desirable addition to Pasadena. The Messrs. 
Painter and Ball each reaped a fortune from it, selling land 
that cost them all told, $25 per acre, for from $50 to $100 per 
acre or more, when first offered. Some of the lands in this 
tract brought the original owners far more than these prices 
when the "boom" came. The Painter and Ball tract now 
comprises what is denominated North Pasadena, and is now 
covered with bungalows, cottages and even mansions, forming 
an important and sightly section of the city. Both Painter 
(and sons) and Ball became prominent figures in the growth 
and progress of Pasadena and its business enterprises, their 
names being synonymous with all progressive movements. 
B. F. Ball became president and large stockholder in the 
Pasadena Manufacturing Company, and vice-president of the 
First National Bank, one of its original stockholders. J. H. 
Painter was a man of high reputation and of many friends 
during his life. 

Altadena — ' ' High Land ' ' 

how the tread of the gringo made land once supposed worthless, 

a place to be desired ; and the abiding place of the rich and 

some others. 

When the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association pur- 
chased four thousand acres from Dr. Griffin there was 
included, as a bonus, or actually a gift, in the transaction, 
a tract containing fourteen hundred acres lying northeast of 
the Colony lands. It was covered with chaparral and gashed 
into gullies here and there, by mountain torrents that came 
rushing unimpeded from their contributing canyons during 
winter storms. It was about as beautiful to look upon as the 
average seven clays beard upon a man's physiognomy. The 
Orange Grove Association was glad to be relieved from paying 
taxes upon it, and when the association received $5 per acre 
for something that had come to it gratis the members felt glad. 
This was the price paid for the 900 acres of it that was pur- 
chased by the Woodbury Brothers of Marshalltown, Iowa, 
on December 1st, 1880. No water rights went with the land, 



102 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

but the Woodburys — Fred F. and John P. — had prepared for 
the purchase by buying the water rights in the Eubio Canyon 
and half of the waters of Millard's Canyon. The owners 
developed these springs, built a reservoir and piped the 
waters to the lands below. Then they borrowed the pretty 
and appropriate name Altadena from Byron 0. Clark, who 
had invented it, and had applied it to his own forty-acre tract 
adjoining. Colonel Banbury, a friend of the Woodbury 
Brothers, purchased fifty acres of the new tract and built him 
a fine home on it. He was appointed manager for the Wood- 
burys and had charge of the proposed improvements. Ban- 
bury at once began cleaning off and breaking the land, divid- 
ing it with streets and planting it to oranges, lemons, grapes 
and other fruits. In time it became a fine example of intelli- 
gently applied horticulture. F. J. Woodbury also built him- 
self a home there, and occupied it with his family for many 
years. 

Altadena, the once apparently valueless tract, is now 
covered with homes and is regarded as one of the desirable 
residential sections about Pasadena. Its many villas and 
mansions attest to its attractiveness. 

Above Altadena P. J. Gano and S. P. Jewett had pur- 
chased from the Orange Grove Association the balance of 
these cheap lands and which they improved. P. Gano and 
Henry Elms had, prior to this time, located on lands near by 
and a son of Elms now resides upon the home ranch and the 
Gano place is still in the same ownership — some of the unus- 
ual instances of long-continued possession, hereabouts, where 
progress seems too often to mean a desire for a change of 
habitation, though perhaps to a finer one. The "old home- 
stead" idea will grow in appreciation as years multiply. 

Eastward of Altadena lies the " Sphinx,' ' farm lands of 
the Allen family since 1879, but recently sold to a syndicate 
for subdivision. These lands were once a part of the Fair 
Oaks ranch. The balance of the Fair Oaks ranch — five hun- 
dred acres — was sold to J. F. Crank in 1877. Crank became 
a member of the State Legislature, built the second street car 
system in Los Angeles (a cable road) and was the principal 
promoter of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad 
(now Santa Fe). He now lives on a corner of the old ranch 
which he recovered in a singular manner, as follows : When 
his ranch was sold, it was described and conveyed by metes 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 103 

and bounds, as was the custom. In making the survey, by 
careless oversight, a small corner (about an acre) of the land 
was omitted in the description. Years afterwards Crank acci- 
dentally discovered this oversight, and took possession, mak- 
ing it his home. 

I have alluded to Byron 0. Clark as the originator of the 
name Altadena. Clark deserves more than passing mention, 
for by his enthusiasm and optimism, and his love of things 
beautiful in Nature, he stimulated the embellishment of many 
homes in Pasadena with new and heretofore untried varieties 
of trees and plants. Many fine old trees now growing in Pasa- 
dena streets and grounds were planted there by him or by 
his advice. At one time he had a nursery yard at what is 
now 35 East Colorado Street. He built the first home at 
Linda Vista (this name was applied by N. G. Yocum, a resi- 
dent there), also founded the Park Nursery Company. To 
him I personally owe unending gratitude for an expanded 
mental vista of the beautiful in this Cosmos, which he did 
much to inculcate, and wherever he now may be, my "good 
word" extends in appreciative obligation. 

La Canada — The Canyon Valley 

at our doorway lies a valley beautiful and picturesque, an 
arcady where one might dwell in delight far away from 
the jar of the world. 

We drive our car across the bridge that spans Devil's 
Gate with a pang, a pang conjured by the feeling that this 
elysium of La Canada should have its severity disturbed 
by raucous honk of gasoline car or the noise of joy riders. 
As we enter its portals — just where the ascent to Flintridge 
begins — we realize the profound charm of serene vales, moun- 
tain slopes and leafy glades combined. Looking up the arroyo 
we see Oak Grove Park, the city's latest park acquisition, with 
its fine grove of live oaks, and we are told that all this love- 
liness may soon be endangered by the water restraining dam 
that is proposed for the Devil's Gate. Valuable as this sys- 
tem of flood control may be, its need should be carefully 
weighed against the destruction it may occasion. 

To the left of us lies "Flintridge," the enchanting domain 
of ex-Senator Flint, who, in a sylvan hollow of these pictur- 
esque hills, has set his mansion, and like Cincinnatus of old, 



104 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

has laid aside the toga for the plough. (We may consider the 
plough in its Pickwickian sense!) Here, in rustic retirement, 
he is assembling a colony of home builders which will soon 
make it a second Oak Knoll in beauty and exclusiveness. We 
may ascend the precipitous road that Flintridge offers as a 
means of access, and if so, we should climb "on the low." 
The steep sides of these buttressing hills dip into umbrageous 
glades, and up again to vast panoramic expanses, where are 
glimpses of exquisite distances and enchanting visions. 

There is an Inspiration Point (or so it should be) from 
whence the eye is filled with the magic of a perfect vista of 
mountain and valley; a glimpse of villa and bungalowland — 
without end. Then onward, through a pleasant shaded high- 
way, by fruitful farm, and past floor-bedecked homes. 
Through La Canada, La Crescenta, Monte Vista, we gaily 
go; thence onward still, to the wide San Fernando Valley, 
miles and miles away; or, if preferred, deflecting south via 
Verdugo road to join the throngs that go eastward, or to 
turn again to our own Pasadena. 

Oak Knoll — The Beautiful 

In 1883 Bayard T. Smith and Harrison Smith, brothers, 
of San Francisco, bought from the Wilson estate about one 
hundred acres of rolling, oak tree covered lands, and "im- 
proved' J them by setting out orange trees and other kinds. 
Bayard Smith lived upon this tract the life of a "gentleman 
farmer" — for such was Bayard's predilection. I believe that 
$35,000 was paid for this land by the Smith brothers, and some 
thousands were spent in improving it. In 1887 they sold this 
ranch for $75,000 to S. Bosenbaum of New York, who had 
spent several winters in Pasadena and saw speculative possi- 
bilities for this tract in the future. These expectations were 
verified, for later it was sold to Henry E. Huntington, and 
became a part of his purchase of many more thousands of 
acres — in advance of the building of the interurban Pacific 
Electric Trolley system, whereby the lands aforesaid acquired 
largely increased value. Oak Knoll * was, in the hands of 
W. B. Staats Company, laid out with fine driveways and street 
improvements that enhanced the great natural beauty of the 
tract. Several hundred acres of adjoining lands, equally 



* On the laud were many fine oak trees, which gave it a park like effect 
and was the incentive to the name. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 105 

beautiful, have since been added to the original purchase, and 
today it is said by world travelers to be the most superb resi- 
dence tract to be found anywhere. With exacting building 
restrictions, and other expensive conditions, only the man of 
means can afford to reside there; hence it is the seat of a 
hundred villas and mansions, the crown of Pasadena's home- 
making achievements. In its paved highways and through 
its oak-shaded canyons is found picturesque diversity and the 
groundwork of garden craft extraordinary such as the mil- 
lionaire, backed by a good architect and an aspiring gardener, 
only, can invent. 

The Hotel Huntington crowns one of the magnificent sites 
of Oak Knoll, and stands like a feudal castle overlooking the 
loveliness spread about it. 

Siekka Madke 

The enterprise and resourcefulness of a Yankee from 
Massachusetts originated Sierra Madre, one of the prettiest 
suburban places in the valley. N. C. Carter it was who, in 
1881, as a purveyor of excursions to California, became 
enamored of this charming vale and negotiated with E. J. 
(Lucky) Baldwin for one thousand of its acres which were 
a part of the great Santa Anita ranch. Water was brought 
down from the little Santa Anita canyon and piped through- 
out this tract. Settlement then began. Other acreage was 
subsequently added to this tract, and it has become a charming 
home place, with a village center and with business enough 
of its own to sustain a bank, schools, library, Woman's Club, 
etc. — all of which add to its homelike and desirable features. 
Its climate is exceptionally fine and its people the sort who 
make a community worth while. Adjoining, on the west, is 
the thousand-acre ranch of Charles C. Hastings, and near by 
the splendid home, "Anoakia," of Mrs. Anita Baldwin (the 
daughter of E. J. Baldwin), who is now the owner of the 
Santa Anita ranch of some thousands of acres. Splendid 
improvements are in view on this old ranch and already sev- 
eral hundred acres have been laid out in villa sites. Some 
day, among the splendid oaks of Anoakia, will arise one of 
the exclusive villa communities, where a dog must wear a 
brass-studded collar to find entrance, and, if penetrating suc- 
cessfully, must also show a record of blue-blooded lineage to 
remain unchloroformed. 



106 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



E. T. Pierce, who lias the distinction of being the first 
purchaser in the Sierra Madre tract, is yet a resident there. 

San Rafael Heights 

One of the picturesque residential sections, rivaling Oak 
Knoll and Flintridge in the charm of its surroundings, is the 
recently annexed territory of San Rafael Heights. From the 
palisades of San Rafael on its eastern side — rising from one 
to two hundred feet in sheer ascent from the Arroyo bottom — 
no more magnificent view is afforded from any point about 
Pasadena, even though it has many rivals. For years it had 
no other residents than the family of its owner, the Campbell 
Johnson family, but now splendid villas dot its lands and give 
it an atmosphere of prosperous luxuriance. 

These lands — the Rancho San Rafael, or Verdugo Ranch, 
as it was once called from its owner's name — was originally 
part of the famous Verdugo ranch of fifty thousand acres 
owned by one Mariano de la Luz Verdugo, who served under 
Governor Portohi when that soldier made his famous pil- 
grimage in quest of Monterey Bay in 1770. Verdugo received 
the lands as a grant from Governor Fages in the year 1784, 
probably for services rendered in that expedition. The east- 
ern boundaries were the banks of the Arroyo Seco. In the 




A GLIMPSE FROM OAK KNOLL 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 107 

usual careless way of the times, Verdugo was a continual 
borrower of money, until, finally, the whole ranch was sub- 
merged in debts to numerous creditors and, in the end, was 
partitioned among them according to their claims. The two 
thousand acres later known as the San Rafael Ranch, or the 
Campbell- Johns on Ranch, went to Philip Beaudry, while the 
lands of Linda Vista went to Captain Dreyfuss, both of Los 
Angeles. 

The two thousand acres above referred to were purchased 
by S. C. Campbell-Johnson, in the year 1882. Johnson was 
a Scotchman of distinguished family, being related to the 
Duke of Argyle. He settled on his purchase with his family. 
One son, S. C. Campbell-Johnson II, with his wife, was lost 
in the sinking of the steamer "Lusitania" by a German tor- 
pedo May 7th, 1915. "The Church of the Angels," located 
on the ranch near Garvanza, was built as a memorial to the 
head of this family by his widow, and is a fitting tribute to 
him. Its quiet seclusion and simple Sabbath services held 
there attract many from Pasadena and surrounding places. 




CHAPTER XVII 
MOEE PROGRESS — A POST OFFICE 





such 



T is all very well to settle 
down to hoeing corn and 
potatoes, to planting or- 
chards and vineyards, and 
to fighting gophers and 
bucolic affairs. These things 



COL. J. BANBURY 

An Honored Pioneer 



keep a people engaged, it is true, but 
they cannot make them entirely for- 
get the past and the friends of the 
past. Naturally, the pioneer longed 
for inter-communication with the 
world outside, and therefore, one of 
the first things that became a real 
and pressing need, was a Post Office. 
Los Angeles was their nearest source 
of mail up to 1876, and it was mostly 
through the friendly politeness of 
Morton Banbury, little son of J. Banbury, who rode to and 
from Los Angeles daily to attend school, that mail service 
was reasonably possible. Morton played postman as a neigh- 
borly courtesy, and thus became Pasadena's first, though 
unofficial, "post boy" or mail carrier, and thus, also, became 
a popular visitor at each home. This courtesy continued until 
Morton fell ill and ceased attending school.* The death of 
Banbury was a loss in many ways, and especially to those 
depending upon his friendly services as mail boy. But a 
regular mail service was demanded by this time, or so thought 
the settlers ; and in consequence, a movement resulted in the 
Department at Washington being petitioned by the colonists 
for the establishment of a postoffice. This project also neces- 
sitated a proper name for the Colony which resulted in the 
adoption of PASADENA. (See Chapter XIII.) Henry T. 

* Morton Banbury died September 4th, 1877, and was buried in his father's 
ranch on Orange Grove Avenue, there being no cemetery then in Pasadena. 
His was the third death in the Colony, the first being the eight year old son of 
A. O. Porter, and the second the four year old son of James Blattenburg. 

108 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 109 

Hollingsworth was the first postmaster, who perfected his 
title to that honorable office ; his commission being dated Sep- 
tember 2nd, 1876, and he thus added to his other duties that 
of Uncle Sam's "man of letters." 

Henry Hollingsworth, at the present writing, is a resident 
of Los Angeles and a member of the Pasadena Society of 
Pioneers. It may be added that Henry served Uncle Sam 
for nearly three years, and was succeeded by his brother, 
Arthur S. Arthur S. is still a lively resident of the Crown 
of the Valley, and he, too, is an ardent member of the honor- 
able Pioneers. 

The First Official Mail Carrier 

When the new born Pasadena was officially placed upon the 
map of the United States, the inhabitants thereof were natur- 
ally pleased, not to say proud. One good thing always leads 
to another, or so 'tis said; hence, by securing a postoffice 
Pasadena also, and by necessity, secured a carrier of mails, 
who was just the correct "class" for such an ideal community 
as was the new "town." It was quite fitting that D. M. 
Graham, who, on account of flagging health, had come to the 
land of sunshine hoping to recover it, was the first officially 
authorized mail messenger between Pasadena and Los 
Angeles. Graham was a college man with some means, and 
did not accept the official post for its remuneration, for that 
need have tempted no man, being something like three hundred 
dollars per annum — nothing extra for horse feed! Graham 
had two pinto horses and an old carriage, and believed he 
needed open air exercise and a chance to absorb some of 
California's best climate. This was his chance and he took 
it. In furtherance of his new pursuit he tacked upon the 
inside of his vehicle a sign, printed upon yellow cardboard, 
bearing the proper legend of his calling. Now it happened 
that there was an epidemic of smallpox in Los Angeles at 
that time, and when the carriage bearing the ominous yellow 
sign first appeared, the untutored Mexicans thought it was 
the pest wagon and quickly vamoosed at its approach! On 
one occasion a newspaper representative of the Philadelphia 
"Press" happening to ride with the owner of the carriage, 
entered into a discussion with him regarding the meaning of 
a certain Spanish name. Graham, out of his desire to assist 
the man, referred to the connection of the word with Latin 
and Greek, then the Hebrew! The correspondent turned to 



110 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

him saying, "Say, I've ridden with many stage drivers, from 
Hank Monk down, bnt you are the first that could discuss 
Greek roots ! ' ' But Greek roots did not interfere with 
Graham's enjoyment of the daily trip ; he recovered his health, 
and lived for some years afterwards in active life. His wife, 
Margaret Collier Graham, made some fame as a writer of 
Western stories. She, too, has passed into the beyond. 

It is hereby seen that the Lake Vineyard Colony has cap- 
tured the school, the church, and finally the postomce, from 
the Orange Grove Colony, thus forever destroying its business 
ambitions. The parent Colony gave its attention to progress 
in another way, it planted and it cared for the groves — its 
first ambitions — and within three or four years, signs of pros- 
perity were in evidence; literally, a golden harvest was in 
prospective — or it at least seemed to be. And no lover of 
things beautiful in nature may look upon an orange grove 
as it blooms and expands, under the assiduously affectionate 
hand of its owner, without conceding it the king of all fruit 
trees beautiful. From its evolution from a spindling shrub, 
to the day it blossoms, then unto the time it reveals the golden 
apples clustering upon ii, it is a beautiful fruition of the horti- 
culturists ' dream. Much of the entire fifteen hundred acres 
of the Orange Grove Colony were planted to orange trees; 
and these, when in their first fruitage, were a gladsome sight 
indeed, to the pioneers who looked upon them as their first 
premonitions of success. 





CHAPTER XVIII 

Social and Fraternal Amenities 

all work makes jack a dull boy, therefore there must be relax- 
ation from the sterner duties of living. the colonists be- 
lieving in the adage, obeyed it in modest ways. 

OME interruption to the progress of the Indiana 
Colony was cansed by the severe drouth experienced 
in the season of 1876-77, when the normal rainfall 
fell from the average of about twenty inches to 
about five. Under such extraordinary shortage of 
moisture, crops could not be raised without irrigation, and 
there was little water to spare for that, then. Sheep, horses 
and cattle died throughout Southern California by thousands, 
and many stock raisers were financially ruined. Henry 
Bennett kept a record of the rainfall in the first Colony years. 
His apparatus was crude but fairly accurate. Bennett says 
that in the extraordinary dry year mentioned the Colonists 
had much difficulty in growing anything at all; and many of 
the young trees suffered for want of sufficient irrigation. 

It is said that some owners of great herds drove thousands 
of head of stock, sheep, horses and cattle, over the bluffs into 
the sea ; preferring to have them quickly drown, than see them 
slowly die of starvation. The Colonists felt this shortage of 
rainfall, because it prevented them from obtaining hay, corn 
or pumpkins, or other forage or feed crops, that went to make 
up their maintenance; yet they did not suffer extremely, 
because not entirely dependent upon these products, but they 
then realized the vast importance of a good water system. 

There being, that season, a marked diminishing of moun- 
tain streams, and the necessity of exercising care against the 
wasteful use of the supply at hand, taught them caution that 
was of value in the future. 

Time, however, effaces such disasters, and Southern Cali- 
fornia ere long, ceased to recall this episode. From the estab- 
lishment of the Lake Vineyard Colony the purposes and 
growth of the twin colonies became synonymous and their 
ambitions mutual; henceforth, therefore, I will write into 

ill 



112 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

these chronicles, in so far as possible, the advance and devel- 
opment of both, regardless of their separate origin and titular 
distinction on the map. If there were rivalries or jealousies 
between the twin colonies, they were nominal and impersonal. 
Each was endeavoring to go its way, with one purpose — to 
successfully establish homes. Work, however, must have sur- 
cease, relaxation, from its cares and trials. Association be- 
tween neighbors is essential to their progress, intellectually 
and otherwise. So we find the Colonists enjoying a communal 
intercourse and fellowship begotten of this natural craving. 
Sorrows as well, bring friendly contact and fraternity. Neigh- 
bors instinctively look to neighbors for sympathy and assist- 
ance in their hours of distress and need. So, also, in the 
house of ease come need of cheer and desire for the lighter 
pleasures of existence. Paraphrasing the Hoosier poet, these 
Hoosier people could often feel that — 

When a fellow's hind o' troubled and a feelin' sort o' blue, 
An' the clouds hang dark an' heavy and won't let sunshine through 
It's a great thing my brethren, for a feller just to lay 
His hand upon your shoulder in a friendly sort o' way! 

In consequence of the singleness of their aims and their 
interdependence, there was a reciprocal spirit born in Colony 
days which formed ties of regard that are vividly rekindled 
whenever these old timers get together. Social relaxations 
and pleasures were not then many, nor were they formal. 
There was the frequent dance at some neighbor's house, or 
barn, with the "Nine Nobby Nigger Minstrels " to perform 
the musical numbers, perhaps. Or was it to interpolate be- 
tween dances, some of their mimic feats'? This talented 
aggregation consisted of Clarence Martin, Will Martin, Will 
Moody, Arthur Day, W. Breand, Fred Meuhler, Fred Lippin- 
cott and Seymour Locke — all familiar names enough to the 
pioneer. Those who came to the front and contributed to the 
merry making were Frank Heydenreich, J. H. Baker, Charley 
Bell, Jerry Beebe, Al Carr and even the sedate J. Banbury, 
who was charged with playing the ' ' fiddle. ' ' Of course there 
was the usual village ' ' Literary ' ' in the first years, that met 
betimes in the little schoolhouse on Orange Grove Avenue, 
and there gave outlet to the budding genius of the day. 
"Billy" Clapp, Perrie Kewen, Seymour Locke, Henry Ben- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 113 

nett — these were among the ' ' intellectuals ' ' who made the 
forum resound and the village acclaim at the talent displayed. 

The girls, too, performed their part in the symposium. 
Annie Swan, Helen Elliott, Ella Gilmore, Jennie Clapp, Millie 
Locke — these were some that added lustre and performed 
their classic parts. There was the "Bachelors' Club" — Al 
Carr, Jerry Beebe, Charley Bell, "Tom" Croft, the Martin 
boys, and some others, who proclaimed their life long alle- 
giance to the single (and simple) life, but who, one and all 
(except Carr), succumbed to maidens' wiles, as soon as the 
proper siren put in her appearance. Clarence Martin, who 
had come to California via the Horn on a sailing vessel, was 
fond of singing "The Larboard Watch," "The Bay of Bis- 
cay," and other nautical melodies; also such sentimental bal- 
lads as "Maid of Athens," "Mary of Argyle," and others of 
the kind then in vogue. There were some others who merely 
formed the chorus — for fear of consequences — but these 
melodious ones oft gave vocal evidence of their tuneful exist- 
ence on fair starlit evenings, to the delight of listening fair 
maids. But young folk were scarce. Mrs. J. R. G-iddings 
says that on one occasion a social event occurred when the 
Colony was raked for available young ladies and beaux. Just 
six ladies were present and twelve young .gentlemen! The 
distress of the overplus was heartrending when the hour came 
for the guests ' departure and the six necessarily disappointed 
beaux wandered of! alone ! 

Charley Watts was always to be counted on when anything 
with fun in it was afoot, for "Charley" was a rollicking per- 
son, who, though loving a practical joke, never held malice 
towards anyone and towards whom no one had an ill thought. 

THE FIRST WEDDING 

And it was this rollicking Charley Watts who first fell 
before Cupid's darts, and plighted his troth to Miss Millie 
Locke, daughter of Major Erie Locke, thus making a break 
in the Bachelors ' Club aforementioned. Their wedding occur- 
red March 12th, 1875, and being the first wedding in the 
Colony was a great event, for both bride and groom were 
popular members thereof. Mrs. Calvin Hartwell possesses 
one of the invitations to this wedding — a much treasured 
memento. 



114 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

They began housekeeping in Watts' little " cabin' ' where 
the first religious services in the Colony had been held, and 
where they lived for many years afterwards. 

Two men prominent in organizing the Indiana Colony were 
Josiah Locke and Calvin Fletcher, neither of whom remained 
long after its beginning. Locke, who was a newspaper man, 
bought land and planted it to orange trees, but his affairs 
called him back to Indianapolis, where he died in 1885. He 
was also the first appointed postmaster, but did not quality 
for the office. 

Fletcher remained in the Colony for a year or two. So did 
D. M. Berry, who for a while was city editor of the Los 
Angeles " Herald." 

I have referred briefly to the social relations of the earliest 
Colonists, those of 74 to 78. In the five years subsequent 
to the latter date, new accessions, especially to the Lake Vine- 
yard side, enlarged the social sphere considerably and added 
numerous charming young women and some agreeable young 
men. With these came enlarged gatherings and multiplied 
"functions," though that word, I think, was never applied in 
those days of simple, unostentatious living. Eemember, there 
were no twin sixes, no palatial eights, to befoul the Arcadian 
contentment with their noxious gases or disturb the peace and 
quiet with their raucous noises ! 

The "hoss" and buggy were inviting and enticing, and of 
sufficient luxury to tempt the most captious young lady to a 
moonlight ride down Orange Grove Avenue, or out Colorado 
Street into yet more quiet country. To the young man with 
his "best girl," the clug clug of Dobbin's hoofs upon the dirt 
pike was music enough to captivated heart! There were no 
"circles," or "cliques," whose exclusiveness froze out the 
more humble. Fashion delayed long in establishing its edicts, 
and those better off in worldly goods than their neighbors, 
refrained from making this fact an ostentatious or excluding 
social barrier. Indeed, there were no rigid social barriers to 
create jealousies or bitterness ; respectability only was the hall 
mark required. This, perhaps, is one of the reasons why the 
old settler who yet survives, remembers with affectionate 
pride the pleasures of those times. But the "village" became 
a real fact by 1883. By that time several additions had been 
made to the business enterprises, not many however. Will 
Wakely opened a tin and hardware store and W. F. Hayes 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



115 



(father of Orrin Hayes) started a grocery on South Fair Oaks 
Avenue in 1881 or '82. Several real estate dealers opened 
offices, among them Ben E. Ward (1883), who was the first 
real estate dealer having an actual office. It was a nook under 
the stairs leading to Williams Hall, Fair Oaks side. Theodore 
P. Lukens had, prior to that date, been selling land in con- 
junction with his occupation as Zanjero and dealer in water 
pipe, and he doubtless was the pioneer real estate dealer in 
Pasadena. Harry Price opened a harness shop, and the first 
drug store was started in February, 1883, by the writer hereof. 
It was known as the Pasadena Pharmacy. Up to 1882 there 
was one medico, Dr. Eadebaugh, who came in 1881 and built 
a little frame office just where the Exchange block stands, 
having a lot of fifty foot frontage, with a laurestinus hedge 
enclosing it. The Williams Block was built in 1883 by R. 
Williams, for his growing business in general storekeeping. 
The postoffice was in this building. Romayne (Barney) Wil- 
liams was then postmaster, Sherman Washburn having suc- 
ceeded Hollingsworth in business, and had sold to " Barney " 
Williams, who finding his business thriving with the growth 
of the settlement, moved from the little frame store 
built by Hollingsworth, into his new and spacious one on the 
corner where the Slavin building now stands. The Williams 
building is of more than passing interest to this history be- 
cause of its relation to the many social, political, dramatic, 
and other events that occurred within its walls during its 
existence. The upper floor was arranged as a public hall- 
theatre — if you please, Sir! with stage, real footlights and 
actual movable " scenery." Also, there was a little gallery 
for the "gods" and others. The 
whole hall seated about five hundred 
persons. It was in this hall that all 
public gatherings were held during 
the formative days, and until it gave 
place to the more modern building. 
Here met the men, and here were 
evolved the plans for all matters of 
public import. All entertainments of 
a public nature took place here ; and 
here, too, met political factions in 
portentous conference — to shape the 
political universe — or so they Some of the « Nobby M instrei S ' 




116 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

thought! It was the "forum" of its day; and interesting in- 
deed, would be the reading now of the speches therein uttered, 
or the discussions there engaged in by the village oracle or 
political solon. Even religious services consecrated its walls 
with the eloquence of divine pabulum. For until certain con- 
gregations acquired their own houses of worship they met in 
this hall. 

A foot race was once pulled off wherein a "rank outsider' ' 
dropped in and captured the prize. Foot races were frequent 
at that time and popular diversions for the Colony boys. The 
school lot on Colorado Street was large enough to allow a 
track one-third of a mile long to be laid out, the school in the 
center. 

On the occasion referred to there were numerous entries, 
among whom were C. W. Bell, Al Carr, and Fred Keith. It 
was believed that Bell, who had achieved some reputation in 
athletic sports, would be the winner, but just prior to the race 
one Frank H. Heald — to be latter better known as a boomer — 
dropped into the village store and wanted to know what the 
" excitement " was about. When informed, he said, "Well, 
I believe I'll take a try at that myself.' ' His hearers jeered 
him, but that didn't matter, he knew his own staying qualities. 
The race was an endurance race of nine hours, go as you 
please. When Healcl appeared to comply with the regulations, 
he was in his mountain shoes and overalls, whereas the other 
sports wore the usual track negligee. The race began, and 
became, in part, a trial between Carr and Keith for the 
leather medal; but Bell and Heald became contestants for 
first honors, striving with much spirit and obstinancy. It was 
a long and trying contest, and to the surprise of all was won 
by Heald and made him the hero of the day ! 

Opon one occasion the girls organized a leap year party 
and called upon the young men at their homes or places of 
abode (some of them abode in caves). These young ladies 
were the Banbury girls, G-eorgie Elliott, and perhaps the Ball 
sisters. They procured a conveyance — I believe it was a farm 
wagon — and secured the services of Whit Elliott as driver. 
Whit blacked his face and posed as a "Sambo" jehu, 
which he knew how to do. They made many calls, end- 
ing up at Carmelita, and enjoyed themselves immensely, of 
course. 

The "Broom Brigade" was a composite of young ladies 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 117 

who, in costume and with brooms, performed a very attractive 
drill, etc., at Williams Hall. Allie Freeman, Velma Brown, 
Bertha McCoy and others whose names cannot now be remem- 
bered, were conspicuous figures in this "pageant." It made 
a hit. 

Another sport was instituted by Arturo Bandini, and con- 
sisted in burying a chicken in a sandy spot up to its head, 
then riding full tilt a-horseback, leaning from the saddle and 
trying to snatch the chicken ! That was an old Spanish sport. 

Following the baying hounds was exhilerating pastime 
and much indulged in by the good riders of early days (and 
nearly all were — men and women). After these outside recre- 
ations, they gathered under some friendly tree, where, spread- 
ing covers upon the ground, they ate their lunches there and 
enjoyed themselves, al fresco. There was a charm about these 
affairs that everyone will remember who participated in them. 

Speaking of ladies as equestrians, Mrs. Bandini and her 
sister, Agnes Elliott, at once are recalled. Also Mrs. Gid- 
dings — then Miss Hollings worth — and others equally expert. 
In fact, everybody rode and some kept hounds, for there were 
plenty of jackrabbits and wildcats. 

At the first Tournament of Eoses, one of the contests was 
a "ring tourney," which consisted in the rider, with poised 
sharp pointed wooden lance, riding at top speed (the time was 
limited) and deftly unhooking rings that were suspended 
overhead. The one who secured most rings within the short- 
est limit of time was the victor. It required expert riding, 
a sure poise and sharp eye. Whit Elliott was one of the best 
at this sport and rode a beautiful black horse, the envy of all. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Histkionic — Chaeacteks and Propekties 



PASADENA'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL THEATRICAL 

AMATEUR PRODUCTIONS AND AMATEURS. THE 
FRIVOLOUS, AND SO FORTH. 



PERFORMANCE. 
FRIVOLS OF THE 





WILLIAMS HALL (left), MASONIC HALL (center 
WASHBURN & WATTS' REAL ESTATE OFFICE 
(to right) 1886 



ND in Will- 
iams Hall 
was pro j 
duced a 
real pro- 
fessional perform- 
ance, or so it was 
claimed by the pro- 
ducers, and even by 
some observers as 
well! 

From the columns 
of "The Valley 
Union,' ' we learn that 
Jay Bials' "unparal- 
leled production of Uncle Tom's Cabin and East Lynne" were 
announced, for "two evenings only," in Williams Hall; the 
first production January 20th, 1885. Real bloodhounds were 
promised for the great Uncle Tom scene ; but in Pasadena, no 
real ice was expected to appear. These were the thrills prom- 
ised for the bucolic mind. Of course almost everyone went, 
and of course also, everyone enjoyed it. Why not! Perhaps 
the dogs were not very fierce, doubtless they were old, tooth- 
less and lazy. Perhaps "little Eva" was twenty-five, or more; 
what then! We had a real "company" with us at last. The 
historical wet season of '83- '84 was on in its fury at that time, 
and the Thespians were storm bound for a week; no stage 
communication with the outer world being possible. So, Pasa- 
dena had a whole week of theatricals; to its heart's content, 
and "meller drammer" soaked in with the rainfall. 

Concerts were frequent in Williams Hall; Carl Frese's 
Orchestra, composed of inspiring home talent, supplied the 

118 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 119 

music for these occasions. The accomplished associates in 
melody of Carl Frese, himself, with his celebrated Cremona, 
were John Eipley, John 0. Lowe, Ed Ryan, "Billy" Clapp 
and Frank Newland. Carl was no inexpert juggler with the 
"fiddle. ' ' Thus the musical entertainments and concerts were 
adequately supplied with the necessary accompaniments. 

Jennie Winston, Velma Brown and Mrs. Beeson supplied 
vocal harmonies with great eclat, and with tremendous ap- 
proval. Allie Freeman, Elma and Hannah Ball, Helen 
Elliott, Agnes Elliott, the Banbury twins, and other equally 
accomplished young ladies, gave play to their really clever 
dramatic talents. Of course the young men did their part and 
did it well, too. Those prominent : Seymour Locke, who was a 
fine baritone singer, came to the fore with great effect ; Clar- 
ence Martin and Arthur Day slipped into the chorus grandly ; 
and when it came to hitting off real ' ' dutch, ' ' Frank Heyden- 
reich was to the front with the true stuff! On one occasion 
the "Pasadena Dramatic Club" (locally celebrated) went 
over to Los Angeles, and rendered a performance in the 
Grand Opera House, in behalf of some Masonic benefit fund. 
Our own Oscar Freeman was "manager" of this troupe. 
Olive Eaton, Elma and Hannah Ball, Bruce Wetherby, C. B. 
Ripley and James Clarke, were accused of displaying "rare 
histrionic genius" by the press of the day. It was a matter 
of public news that "Jim" Clarke made a hit — as a police- 
man! Whether with his club, or by his impersonation, 
deponent telleth not. There was one event "pulled off" in 
Williams Hall, that was kept sub rosa for some time ; but it 
will bear telling now. A certain young man who did contract- 
ing about the village, imagined he was some boxer. Big and 
muscular, a heavy weight, in ring parlance, nothing would do 
but he must get "his chance" to show the stuff that was in 
him. It was quietly arranged among his friends and backers, 
that he should meet in the fistic arena one Cluff, a somewhat 
noted middle weight amateur. Time, one evening; place, 
Williams Hall, and conditions, "on the quiet." The evening 
came, our local champion, who was of Celtic origin, proudly 
appeared wearing green trunks in honor of the land of his 
ancestors. He looked "fit" and smiled like a conqueror. 
That was before the fracas began. Jim Doty was "best 
man" to "M. J. Gr.," and with the usual preliminaries gone 
through with, the two men entered the arena, i. e., appeared 



120 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

upon the stage. After some preliminary sparring and a feint 
or two to size up each other, the local let go for the other 
fellow with an energetic punch, expecting that one blow 
would end the fray. 

It did not ; on the contrary, duff shot out his good right, 
and hit his opponent on the jaw such a whack, that he 
doubled him up against the scenery — groggy and dazed. 
Time: one minute. 

It was an unexpected surprise to M. J. GL, but he was still 
game enough to put up his " props' ' once more, duff, by 
this time had sized up his man, and begged his second to stop 
the fight, knowing full well that the other fellow did not 
understand the game. No persuasion prevailed with the 
"Celtic phenomenon, ' ' for his dander was up and, with a 
bellow of rage and both hands up, he charged like a ferocious 
bull upon duff. But before he had fairly reached position 
duff led a hearty blow upon his nose, which tumbled his 
bulky opponent sprawling over Jim Doty, nearly knocking 
Jim out too. It settled that fight, and M. J. Gr. nevermore 
declared an ambition for the fistic arena. 

Well, Williams Hall, the theatre of many affairs, social, 
dramatic, political and constructive, has passed, and is one of 
the memories pleasant to recall ; a happy memory, filled with 
aspirations, and with much realization also, and, as such, has 
earned a sacred place in these chronicles. 

"The Pasadena Grand Opera House,' ' the outcome of a 
real estate scheme, succeeded Williams Hall as a theatre 
for the sock and buskin and its glories were dimmed in the 
year 1889. 

The "B. L. B." 

There are many ways that might be sought to amuse. 
Even the sick can find opportunities. Mrs. Jennie Banbury 
Ford furnishes the following as an illustration. At the time 
of this happening many people sought Pasadena for its 
climate alone, believing it well suited to tubercular diseases. 
This story is about the "lung brigade' ' with whom we must 
all feel the sympathy that must go out to those who may not 
be cured. But today the great white plague is not the 
formidable foe it once was — thanks to medical science. 

"When Mrs. Bangs' boarding house was most flourishing, 
there were many consumptives coming and going. It became 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 121 

so depressing it was suggested that they band themselves 
together nnder the head of "the bnsted lung brigade," and 
create more hopeful and cheerful feeling. The suggestion 
was carried out and proved very successful. They elected 
officers, had a beautiful silk banner with "B. L. B." em- 
broidered on it and met all "busted lungers" with open arms. 
Those whose stay was ended were started on their several 
ways with smiles and cheers. Each member was compelled 
to sign the by-laws, which were amusing at least. They must 
"not sit in a draft, must consume just so much milk and so 
many eggs each day and look after each other's comfort, etc" 
To help the fun along, Mrs. Bangs bought a parrot in Los 
Angeles who knew how to cough exactly like a "lunger" and 
contributed much to the amusement. I don't believe a more 
grotesque club ever existed, do you? It lasted for several 
years. 

The Grand Opera House was opened February 13th, 1889, 
and for a time was a successful caterer to theatrical amuse- 
ments under the management of Harry Wyatt, but the burst- 
ing of the boom stranded that venture, and the once really 
fine dramatic structure is now but a dismantled reminder of 
its former uses, being devoted to humble business enter- 
prises; and of its histrionic splendors not a hint remains 
except the name decorating its front. 

In 1883 a brass band was organized under the tutelage of 
Professor Scovill of Los Angeles. (There had been an at- 
tempt prior to this but no regular organization.) Members 
were John D. Ripley, John Stamm, John 0. Lowe, W. B. 
Clapp, George Woodbury, Hancock Banning, Carl Frese, 
George Eaton, Lou Winder, Al Howe, and Frank Newlan, 
leader. They met in an upper story of a building just in the 
rear of John McDonald's office (in Mercantile Place). Han- 
cock Banning enthusiastically put up this building for the 
boys. The lower floor was used for the first power printing 
press that came to Pasadena. Its first public appearance was 
on the evening of July 4th of that year, when a little celebra- 
tion — some fireworks, etc., was held in the schoolhouse square. 
Nearly "everybody" was present and were highly enter- 
tained — or at least so declared themselves to be. 

A baseball team was organized in 1882 and contained as 
its "talent" Billy Clapp, the Swan boys, — Bill and Charley; 
the Martin brothers, — C. S. and Will : Frank Townsend, Wes. 



122 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Banbury and some whose names are lost to fame. (Frank 
Decker won fame in later years.) 

This team was once challenged by a Los Angeles team, 
and E. F. Hurlbnt offered to give the boys uniforms if they 
won. Alas ! They not only were beaten, but actually "white- 
washed" and " sneaked home after dark!" Different from 
their departure with bells ringing and drum beating ! 

DOWN AT BARNEY WILLIAMS' STORE 

Wish't I could jest grow backwards an' be as young again 

As when this town was littler, an' fer a while remain — 

Way back into the eighties — say about old eighty-three, 

Why them was simpler times, them days — but good enough fer me! 

I'd like to meet the same old friends I knew in them old days, 

The fellers that I us't to know — in them old hearty ways; 

To hear their cheery words again, to see their kindly smiles — 

Why jest to shake them by the hand, I'd travel many miles! 

The fashions didn't trouble much, we lived a simple life; 

The moral tone was pretty good, we kind o' hated strife; 

An' we always felt quite happy when the future was discus' t, 

Fer we never borrowed trouble and there wan't no banks to bust! 

Each day the blessed sunshine shone on mountain and on plain, 

An' glorified the landscape that we claimed as our domain; — 

Gave promise to the pioneers who traveled here in quest 

Of some such happy omen in this land that God had bles't. 

When we watched these golden glories and listened to the song 

Of the silver throated mocker as it warbled all day long, 

We seemed to be in heaven where they say that angels dwell — 

A listnin' to them singin' and a singin' mighty well! 

We planted and we labored with the vines and with the trees, 

An' we prayed (near every Sunday) that we mighn't have a freeze! 

An' the profits were amazin' (when we figgered up the crops,) 

Made us feel dadgasted scrumtyus just a countin' of the "rocks" ! 

There wasn't many lodges, then, an' when a married man, 

Tried to get out o' evenins', 'twas sort a' hard to plan — 

An' to find excuses easy an' avoid a family roar 

Why he'd jest pert end some business down at Barney Williams' store! 

Now down at Barney Williams' could be found the village sports, 

As well as punkin rollers and fellers of all sorts; 

For there they loved, to gather an' listen to the news — 

Talk politiks an' religion an' air their pers'nal views; 

Oh the yarns and funny stories that these fellers used to tell 

Were very entertainin' an' they told them very well. 

There was Johnny Mills and Washburn an' also Charley Watts, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 123 

And Lukens with his offerins of residential lots; 

(Tho this was long before the days when Pasadena's boom — 

Gave us a call — and left us — a shiverin' in our gloom). 

There was Porter; also Picher and also P. M. Green, 

A trio which no smarter have hereabouts bem seen! 

Magee, who was a Counsellor at law — as well as Ward, 

Proclaimed the Constitution, also lived in sweet accord. 

An' when it came to arguments, no one else dust argify — 

With them two luminaries, they was too mity spry! 

Then Heydenreich and Markham; and also of renown 

Was the 'postle of good water, our good friend C. C. Brown. 

There was Croft of Indiany and big Col of Ioway — 

C. 8. Martin and John Allin—who gen'lly had their say; 

Oh I wish't that I could see them now and call them all by name; 

Them pioneers of way back that set in the early game! 

But most — alas! have left us an' crossed the great divide, 

Tho a few yet linger hereabouts and in happiness abide. 

An' whether poor or plutocrat I jest want to make it plain, 

That 'twould make me mity happy jest to shake their hands again — 

And to have a little con'frence like we had in days of yore, 

When we used to have them sessions down at Barney Williams' Store. 





CHAPTER XX 

The Hunter and the Hunted 

wherein are related certain feats op mighty nimrods and sport 
op the early days. chasing wild cats as a pastime. 

T has been said, slanderously of course, that the 
game most hunted in Pasadena has been the " blind 

pig." 

Certainly the porcine quest has had its place in 
the interesting events relating to our fair city, but 
as that chase was chiefly confined to the officers of the law, 
together with some self constituted censors, the application 
is notably inappropriate. There were other objects of the 
true sportsman, and there were some men — and women too — 
devotees of the hunt, who made the pastime a real sport. 

Many kinds of wild game abounded in the mountains and 
canyon fastnesses back of Pasadena; some of them finding 
their way down the Arroyo, even into the colony's sparsely 
settled precincts, in very early days. The terrible California 
grizzly was never seen very far from his mountain home, 
but the mountain lion, the wild cat, deer, the coyote, the 
fox, and other species of minor game were to be found in 
plenty, finding safe retreat in the chaparral on the mesas, or 
in the arroyo 's secluded nooks. 

As late as 1888, M. Rosenbaum shot a "coon" which he 
discovered in a tree in his yard on Grand Avenue, upon a 
moonlit night, but this was a rare avis, coons not being a 
common animal in California. But hunting the wild cat or 
"bob" cat — a species of lynx, cunning, plucky, and a hard 
fighter; was an exhilarating sport in the early Colony days. 
Arturo Bandini, the usual organizer of these hunts, his wife 
Helen Elliott Bandini,* her sister Agnes and brother "Whit" 

■ \mm 

* Mrs. Bandini, always foremost in social and progressive movements in 
the Colony's early days, in more recent ones, before her untimely death, 
acquired note as a writer, especially upon topics relating to early California 
life. She also became much interested in the relicts of the Indian tribes of Cali- 
fornia and did much good work among them. In her honor the Indian Associ- 
ation of Southern California became the Helen Elliott Bandini Association 
after her demise. 

124 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 125 

Elliott, being able aids in this sport. All of them were expert 
riders and good shots, and all were most excellent companions 
in a day's hnnt. Don Arturo Bandini was the son of Juan 
Bandini, one of the old Spanish Dons, whose part in the mak- 
ing of Southern California is noted in its recorded history. 
Don Arturo had the characteristics of the old Californian, 
being a good sportsman and a vivid raconteur. He was at 
home when astride of a horse, with dogs baying at his heels, 
the eternal cigarette in strict evidence. 

The California horse — or mustang — erroneously called, is 
the best saddle animal created, where mountain trails or 
rugged slopes must be negotiated. Swift of action, sure of 
foot, and keen of eye, he is both safe and untiring; all of 
which accomplishments come from generations of habits and 
training. Let us go with Don Arturo and his party of ladies, 
as well as gentlemen, on a real wild cat hunt, as experienced 
in the early days of the colony. The party will be, of course, 
mounted on the usual California horse, the dogs will be eager 
and anticipating the sport, with which their training has 
made them familiar. The call of the horn, blown perhaps by 
Don Arturo or perhaps by "Whit" Elliott, sounds the for- 
ward, clear and musical, echoing through the distant canyons 
and the arroyo. The party according to orders, moved toward 
the Arroyo Seco, where the wild cat was expected to be hidden 
in his secluded retreat. It is an early morning of a December 
day — crisp and invigorating. The sunshine bathes the valley 
in golden haze, and the opal mists that have filled the canyons 
and clothed the mountains, are rolling upwards as the sun 
dissolves them and dissipates the dew that drips in crystal 
beads from pendulous grass blades. Everyone is eager, alert, 
and expectant. They are approaching the lair of their ex- 
pected beast! The baying hounds grow more and more ex- 
cited, for the scent is in their nostrils. The party separates, 
each aiming to be the first to discover the game. Presently 
the cat is seen, slipping rapidly from its hidden cover, his 
beautiful glossy sides shining in the morning sunshine as he 
appears for a moment, and is again lost to the gaze of the 
excited hunters. Pressed by the yelping dogs now in hue and 
cry, with the riders close following, the cat at last takes 
refuge in a sycamore tree, quickly mounting to its topmost 
bough. There he crouches teeth gleaming and eyes defiantly 
surveying the circling, snarling dogs, that have formed them- 



126 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

selves about the tree below. Efforts are made to knock him 
off by shaking the branches. "Whit" Elliott ascends the 
tree, the cat jumps from limb to limb evading him. It is not 
sporting ethics to shoot the cat, it is the dogs share of the 
sport to finish it. So he must be shaken off. Sometimes the 
cat escapes, for the time at least by leaping to an adjacent 
tree, perhaps twenty feet or more distant, and thence again 
to another, so rapidly that ere the dogs discover the trick 
the cat has disappeared. If he fails in this, he at last is 
shaken off and drops to the ground doomed to death by the 
now frenzied hounds who dispatch their prey in quick order. 
The pelt is the trophy for the fair lady who may be favored 
thus for her bright eyes or her Diana's skill. 

Sometimes the cat makes an ugly fight for life, and may 
kill a dog, or cripple several, in its last struggle for life and 
liberty. The wild cat has long since been forced back into 
remote mountain retreats, by the presence of mankind. Doubt- 
less the mountains above Pasadena possess many of them 
yet, but they are never now found in the Arroyo bottoms or 
in the vicinity of Pasadena. 

Judge Eaton was wont to relate that on his Fair Oaks 
ranch, in 1858, he planted out several thousand grape 
cuttings, this being the first experiment of the kind on dry 
land. The grape vines grew and bore fine grapes. Wild 
animals — bears, deer, and many other kinds, discovered this 
fact, and made nightly forays upon the vineyard. The Judge 
was often compelled to arise and sally forth with gun and 
dogs to the rescue of his beloved grapes. 

These reminiscences would be incomplete without refer- 
ence to Professor Charles F. Holder, the author of many 
hunting stories and books on outdoor sports, Mr. Holder was 
very fond of the hounds and his great delight was to be well 
mounted and in full hue and cry behind a pack. He led many a 
chase and brought down many trophies of his success — wild 
cats and jackrabbits were especially his choice for a thrilling 
ride. 

EL CONEJO. QUAIL— THE CALIFOBNIA PAE- 

TEIDGE 

Hunting the jackrabbit was also great sport; but less 
exciting and without the slight element of danger attending 
the cat hunt. This sport belongs to a wide plain where the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 127 

long legged conejo may run instead of hide, and where too, 
he has a chance of showing his astonishing speed; for a jack- 
rabbit fully unlimbered, can outdistance any dog, excepting 
a greyhound, and sometimes it, also. 

Professor Holder was very fond of this kind of hunt, and 
being an expert horseman was a successful sportsman in 
this, as in other objects of the chase. Quail hunting was 
another common recreation. The California quail is a game 
bird, hard to bag, and exacting the full abilities of the hunter. 
As late as the middle eighties, this bird was extremely plenti- 
ful on the mesas and chaparral about Pasadena, and it was 
no great trick to get a good bag at any time, in season. 

There are two varieties, the Valley, and the Mountain 
species. The Valley quail herds in enormous covies; some- 
times in mai\y thousands; the Mountain species is a much 
handsomer bird with its striking black plumes and vivid 
black and gray striped neck, and olive body. This latter 
variety is difficult to hunt, as it is only found in deep canyons 
or canyon sides, high in the mountains, where when fright- 
ened it hides until all danger is passed. It may cunningly 
lay low for hours after being disturbed by man's intruding 
footsteps, and one may tread upon it, almost, before it flushes 
and scurries off to another hiding place. 

The quail hunter may hear a flutter of wings, a slight clip, 
clip, and, though sure of their presence, he may be unable 
to discover a single quail until presently, when he about con- 
cludes there is no quail near, the air is filled with them, as 
they rise with a sudden whirr from almost beneath his feet. 
Or he may see them scurrying away from bush to bush, run- 
ning with great speed, cunning and wise, in their efforts to 
escape danger. 

Civilization has driven the quail to distant fields, although 
they yet linger hereabout, and even find their way now and 
then when unmolested into city gardens. A neighbor of 
mine harbored a large family of quail from their hatching 
until fully grown, and it was a fine sight to see them frequently 
go hurrying over the lawn, the mother leading. On the ap- 
proach of anyone they quickly disappeared. 

This is no rare occurrence in the gardens even on busy 
thoroughfares of Pasadena, especially in the gardens near 
the Arroyo. 



128 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

BRUIN, THE CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY; AND OTHER 
BEARS MORE FRIENDLY 

Many bear yarns have been circulated about Pasadena, 
and it is but a few years since that a Bruin could occasionally 
be met with in the canyons, or in the mountain trails near 
by. Perhaps the tenderfoot might exaggerate a common 
black bear into a monster grizzly, yet it is a fact, that grizzly 
bears have been seen and killed, not far from Pasadena. J. 
R. Giddings killed a good sized one on his ranch at Millard 
Canyon, some years ago, and recently a silvertipped grizzly 
was killed in the Tejunga Canyon, but it is supposed to have 
been a young one that escaped a few years ago from cap- 
tivity at Mt. Lowe, and therefore not very wild. No one who 
knows anything about the California grizzly, wants to make 
his close acquaintance, for he is the one wild animal that is 
unafraid of man, and an animal whose activity and ferocity 
and tremendous strength makes him a formidable foe to 
meet. Mountaineers and hunters who have met the grizzly 
unexpectedly on the mountain trails, sometimes have not 
lived to tell of his lightning quickness, and his almost im- 
munity from ordinary rifle bullets. I once knew a man, who, 
upon meeting a grizzly on a narrow mountain trial, was 
knocked down by a cuff of the bear's paw, which broke his 
arm. Knowing that a grizzly will not — usually — destroy or 
further attack a man supposed to be dead, this man shammed 
death, while the bear pawed him over, even gnawing his 
hand, to which he quietly submitted although suffering hor- 
ribly. The bear finally departed, and the man escaped, but 
carried a distorted jaw and the results of a gnawed hand the 
balance of his days. 

I remember also, the big scare a party of us got, a few 
years ago, when camping on the summit of Mt. Wilson. We 
slept in our blankets in the open, under the great trees. Upon 
arising in the morning we discovered the fresh footprints of 
a grizzly about twenty-five feet from our camping place. To 
be sure we had a fire burning close by, which was a good 
protection, also it is certain we had two fires the next night ! 
The black bear and the cinnamon (brown) are not much to 
be feared, if at all, and were formerly quite common in the 
canyons, from whence they made forays upon vineyards and 
apiaries near by. Honey is the finest delicacy to the bear's 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 129 

palate and he will travel far to find a bee hive ; which he will 
attack despite the bees, and devour the honey with great 
gusto. 

Deer and mountain lions are still to be found beyond the 
first range of mountains, sometimes being driven down to 
the outside world when unusually heavy snowfalls occur. 
Deer frequently follow the canyons down to the bottom and 
wander outside. Walter Richardson, who has won some 
renown as a big game hunter in South Africa, has killed 
several black and brown bears in these mountains, but so far 
as I know no grizzlies hereabouts. 

FRANK LOWE'S BEAR STORY 

Frank Lowe, who was one of the earliest settlers, relates 
the following bear story, and in proof of — if proof were 
necessary, he shows the results on his jaw. Frank was a 
member of a surveying party in Utah, and, while out one day 
with others, came upon grizzly tracks. Several of the 
party started to hunt the bear, Lowe among them, carrying a 
double-barreled shot gun loaded with buckshot and bullets. 
They tracked the animal to a clump of brush and decided to 
separate and surround his "bearship." Frank prepared 
for a sudden encounter, by cocking both hammers, and pro- 
ceeded towards a suspected clump of brush. The bear was 
there all right, and, seeing Frank first, struck at him, hit 
him on the leg and knocked him down, broke his jaw in four 
places, tore out a fingernail, also nearly tearing his tongue 
out and otherwise damaging poor Frank. Just as the bear 
proceeded to sample Frank's face, his gun was accidentally 
discharged, probably in falling, and both charges hit the 
bear, who bounded off with a roar of pain. No surgical help 
was at hand and Lowe had to be assisted to a point five miles 
away — walking mostly, then being driven in a lumber wagon 
sixty miles farther ; then by train to Ogden, then to Salt Lake 
City. All of which required four days time, during which no 
surgical aid was rendered, nor any sustenance given, not 
even water, on account of his broken jaw. It took a long time 
for Frank to recover and the result of the attack is yet shown 
very plainly when Frank is disposed to talk of it. And yet, 
some fellows think they would like grizzly bear hunting! B. 
W. Hahn shows a fine Alaska bear skin which he captured in 
that country, one of the Kodiak Island species. 



130 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



It is told of Seymour Locke, that once when hunting 
mountain lions, a wild cat suddenly jumped out of the bushes 
near him. Seymour was so flustered that his gun was dis- 
charged somehow, and shot off the tail of a horse that was 
standing near by! The other horses were stampeded and 
ran away — as did the wild cat. But Seymour was worse 
scared than the cat. 

A story is also related of Clarence Martin, who now and 
then, pursued the role of nimrod. Upon an occasion when 
hunting cotton-tail rabbits he suddenly came upon a great 
number of them, and becoming excited by his unexpected 
luck, forgot to shoot, but used his gun as a club until he broke 
the stock off! Clarence used to tell this story on himself. 

This is a good place to tell a little "game" story about 
Johnny Mills. John was fishing for big fish at Catalina and 
finally succeeded in hooking something full of " ginger.' ' In 
the struggle, the fish, a stingray as it proved to be, large and 
formidable, punctured his hand with its " stinger." John 
struck for camp, and had his hand given first aid by Mrs. 
Mills; there being no doctor on the island. John thought of 
all the serious things that he had ever heard of resulting 
from the sting of a "stingaree," and bemoaned his certain 
doom. He talked over his affairs with his better half, and 
prepared to meet his inevitable fate. It is pleasant to relate 
that only the fish died — not Johnny — who yet lives to enjoy a 
good story even if its subject. 

During a hunt for wild cats near Pasadena a large one 
was raised, and after being chased over the country for 
miles by the dogs, turned towards the town and dashed 

through Colorado Street, the hounds 
in swift pursuit yelping loudly. The 
cat was finally captured by the dogs at 
the corner of Lake Avenue and dis- 
patched. 

Perhaps bees, common honey bees, 
cannot be called "game," yet bees are 
hunted for their honey; that is, wild 
bees are, and some men prefer to hunt 
honey bees, rather than more fero- 
cious game. It may be safer, but not 
always, as I will relate. A rather 
prominent person in the early days, 




PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 131 

was affected with this kind of a desire, and bragged a good 
deal about his fine scent for honey in its native wilds. In- 
ducing a friend to accompany him, he upon one occasion set 
out for a honey hunt, telling his friend of a splendid mellif- 
luous cache he knew of. After traveling many miles the bee 
sharp suddenly halted, and with tense expression signified 
that he had "scented" his game. "It's there" he exclaimed, 
"in that log" — pointing to a huge log in the distance. 
They approached the log and sure enough a few honey bees 
were seen swarming about. The bee sharp, upon examining 
the log which was hollow, pronounced his conviction that "it 
was full of honey," and he was going to get it. Pulling off 
his coat, he proceeded to insinuate himself into that log, 
until nothing but his feet were seen. For a time it seemed 
that the honey hunter was lost forever from his friend out- 
side until a gurgling yell was heard, accompanied with violent 
movements of protruding feet. The log vibrated and 
wobbled, and at length began to roll down the slope, to the 
horror of the onlooker and despite his efforts to prevent it. 
The bees happened to be at home that day and resented the 
intrusion of the honey hunter. The log loosened from its 
bearings continued to roll down the hill, the prisoner yelling 
for help, and it did not stop until it had reached the bottom 
of the slope; where it brought up with a thump against a 
tree, the man inside improving every minute with vocal var- 
iations, and adjectives unfit for Sunday School literature. 
When at last, and with difficulty, his friend had pulled him 
out of the log, he was a sorry looking picture, his face show- 
ing the intimate attentions of the business end of the bees, 
his hair a conglomeration of honey and rotten wood dust, 
and his clothing pretty badly mussed. It was some time 
before he made a presentable appearance in society. 

L. J. Eose, owner of Sunny Slope ranch, adjoining 
Pasadena, was a lover of nature, a good sportsman and a 
successful breeder of fast horses. One of these horses won 
no less than fifty thousand dollars in one season. But Eose 
was more than a horseman, he was a useful and enterprising 
man of parts. Interested in stock, he also became interested 
in game birds, and imported a dozen pairs of English Sky- 
larks and set them free on his Eosemead ranch, hoping they 
would breed, and thus become a valuable addition to our 
ornithology; but it was not a successful experiment for some 



132 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

reason, as no one, so far as is known, has seen any of these 
birds or their possible progeny since they were turned loose. 

There was another little animal that frequented the out- 
skirts of Pasadena and sometimes invaded its home pre- 
cincts. It was not sought much, but — sometimes found, 
unsought! A friend of this writer was upon a hunting trip 
and had camped on a pleasant stretch of woodland, near an 
arroyo. He had hung a fine young buck that he had 
shot, on a tree for safety from night marauders; and 
wrapping himself in his blanket was soon dreaming. Some- 
time in the night something awoke him; something was 
moving down there in the shadows cast by a big sycamore. 
It was full moon, and every shadow was intense and every 
movement, in the silver light, noticeable. He watched, 
with eyes intent, and saw in every object a strange ani- 
mal. Another slight noise, another movement yonder! My 
friend cautiously raised himself, seized the ready rifle, and 
lay rigid and alert with ears attuned. It might be a moun- 
tain lion drawn hither by the odor of the fresh venison; it 
might be the mighty monarch of the California woods — a 
grizzly! Presently a slight crash in the chaparral, over 
there, a body was moving across the open — in that shadow. 
Hesitation might be dangerous, so he quickly fired, once, 
twice! Something rolled over into the moonlight — dead, no 
doubt. But it was no lion, no bear, nor any other ferocious 
beast, as his olfactories soon discovered. It was just a com- 
mon all day skunk! My friend was sorry, oh so sorry! But 
he had to move his camp and move at once, as anyone would 
know who ever tackled the celebrated Mephitis Occidentales, 
or its smelly little brother Spilogale Putorius. They smell 
just as badly by one name as another. The skunk is not 
"game" except to be avoided. Somehow for unknown 
reasons they have some fascinating quality for dogs. You 
usually bury the dog afterwards; or at least move him into 
another neighborhood. 

Deer hunting was common sport, fine specimens being 
obtained on the ranges beyond Mt. Wilson, on Barley Flats 
and in the many canyon confluents of the higher peaks. Not 
infrequently after a heavy snowfall, these animals would ven- 
ture from the mountains down to the mesas, or farther; 
driven by hunger. There is still deer hunting in the canyons 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 133 

but there are more hunters than deer usually. The black 
tail variety is the kind usually found in this vicinity. 

SOME BIRDS— THE MOCKER 

In connection with the subject of game, I may consistently 
mention some birds that are best known in the vicinity of 
Pasadena. In thinking of birds, the mocking bird will at 
once come to mind, because it is of all the California 
feathered tribe, the monarch of songsters; and the sauciest 
and most arrogant of all domestically inclined birds. Yet it is 
often made a pet of — tamed into agreeable association. Cali- 
fornia has few warblers of note, or worthy of fame because of 
their melodious voices. The lark, of course, has high place; 
the oriole is worthy of remembrance, and others too have a 
limited vocabulary, scarcely within the dignity of being 
classed as songsters. Rut the mocker at once challenges ad- 
miration, for within its throat lies the power that has made 
it famed wherever it may reside. More than that, the mocker 
is an almost intimate part of California family life, prefer- 
ring as it does, to abide close to human habitations and with- 
in sight of people. 

It has many characteristics of its own and with close study 
the bird lover will find it an interesting subject. Most interest 
centers on the male of the species, for he it is who builds the 
home, does the " chores " and stands, an orchestral guardian, 
while his mate reposes in maternal duty upon the nearby 
nest and brings forth the little family. But it is of its 
melodious ability that I must speak. It is a pity that 
language contains no words that will symbolize the melody 
of bird notes, their marvelous range of vocalization and won- 
drous essence of song! And in these the mocker is epi- 
tomized to the highest degree. Choosing its eyrie upon the 
tallest bough of the tallest tree in its chosen neighborhood; 
or, for friendly choice, the chimney of the domicile, the 
mocker proceeds to pour forth its liquid music with a prodi- 
gality and earnestness astonishing and incredible — incredi- 
ble that a throat so small, and a body so inadequate could 
produce it and survive. And for hours and hours — with 
little or no cessation — the concert proceeds. Oratorios, 
splendid and overwhelming; minstrelsy surprising and in- 
spiring. From the highest ecstacy to a low, dulcet, tender, ap- 



134 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

peal, and again soaring into wildest flights of bewildering 
cadenzas it sounds its clarion acclaim. And so the concert 
may continue all day and even also, all night with little or no 
interval. Some have said the mocker's voice is not always 
musical, that it is too loud, too strident. True, it may some- 
times incur from its unruly performances this criticism, for 
it is a real "mocker,'' imitating the harshest and shrillest 
sounds it may hear, and repeating them with a thousand var- 
iations. 

If, at midnight, when somnolent hearer seeks in vain for 
quiet repose, this saucy and militant warbler may have found 
an eyrie near by — on the chimney top, perhaps ; there to pour 
forth his chansons and his crescendos in dynamic orchestra- 
tion, one may justly murmur, if not object. Watching this 
warbler in action is a lesson to the lazy one. He sings with 
both soul and body. He sings with eyes keen and alert ; with 
beak distended and legs sturdily braced; and with his whole 
energy compressed into the notes that rush impetuously from 
his little throat. It is a marvel of bird songsters and is well 
entitled to its uncontested place — easily first — in the vocal or- 
chestra; and no matter how humble the home, the dwellers 
thereof may enjoy the music of the mocker. The only price — 
even that not a condition — a few crumbs from the dining table 
now and then and an unmolested tree in the garden corner. 

Some other birds are conspicuous about Pasadena. The 
Quail already referred to, was once the sportsman's delight in 
the Arroyo bed and on the chaparral covered mesas, but has 
moved before the tide of civilization and settlement. 

The Scarlet Tanager is conspicuous as he flies — a streak of 
scarlet across the vision. 

The Grosbeak, a bird of some beauty ; the Woodpecker ; and 
the Jay — arrogant and " bossy," among the feathered tribe. 
The mourning Dove, beautiful in its soft gray coat, and the 
Blackbird, saucy and noisy, as always has been his reputation. 
California is credited with 543 kinds of birds, though Pro- 
fessor Joseph Grinnell does not give so many. I cannot pass 
from this subject without mention of the roadrunner, whose 
astonishing gait, and habit of speeding for long distances in 
front of a fast moving auto, and then suddenly disappearing, 
has made him noticeable on California roads. Then the owl, 
— eight or nine varieties of him — gives him conspicuous 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 135 

place in the feathered world. The eagle is now a rarely seen 
bird in this vicinity, but now and then may be seen in the 
monntains. The hummingbird is seen in at least five varieties 
about Pasadena, some of them strikingly beautiful. The 
vulture, too, is often noted, soaring in sweeping circles, away 
up in the blue canopy. Professor Grinnell has claimed about 
160 birds that may be found in this vicinity, a list too long 
for these pages. The public library will supply Professor 
GrinnelPs catalogue of birds, as it will also that of reptiles; 
which is of special interest to us from the fact that Professor 
Grinnell — now in the curator's department at the University, 
is a Pasadena boy, born and bred. 

I may fittingly close this chapter with a story of a dog 
and an eagle which is authentic. The dog cannot be cited to 
prove it, for he died by the poison route — the agency of 
inhuman cowards, a short time ago at Ontario, California, 
where he was the hero and the pet of that community. His 
name was Baldy Bruno, acquired from having lived with his 
master at a wayside inn on the summit of Mt. Baldy. Bruno 
one day saw two immense eagles swoop down upon a little 
child 18 months of age, who was playing near by. One of 
the birds had seized the child in its talons — the other hover- 
ing near — and was raising him into the air, when Bruno, with 
a mighty leap jumped upon the eagle's back and brought 
both bird and child to earth. The child was unhurt but the 
eagle fought fiercely for his prey until help arrived and it 
was dispatched. The dog was thereafter famous and his 
death, years after the incident, much mourned. The little 
child — now a grown boy — has perhaps the unique distinction 
of passing through such an adventure. 




CHAPTER XXI 

Some Business — A Citrus Fair 

ITTLE attention was paid to commercial affairs by 
the colonists; at least in the first decade; for no 
one anticipated that business would ever play an 
important part in the settlement. The general 
store — there came a second one when Haves' Gro- 
cery was opened on Fair Oaks Avenue in 1881; the village 
smithy; the shoe shop; and the post office. Deciduous fruit 
trees — apricots, peaches, plums, etc. — were coming into fruit- 
age at the end of three or four years, and the disposition of 
this fruit was a matter of importance. Los Angeles was the 
only market — a limited one. Joseph Wallace measurably 
solved the problem when, in 1881, he built a cannery and began 
a packing business which he called the Pasadena Packing 
Company, located on his ranch on Mountain Street and Fair 
Oaks Avenue. The first year's output was but ten thousand 
cans of choicest quality, for Wallace chose only the best, and 
during his ownership of the company established a reputation 
for the high quality of its product. The problem of markets 
was becoming a serious one at the end of the Colony's first 
ten years. There were buyers of oranges and lemons, and 
there were dealers, on a commission basis; but the buyers 
fixed their own prices and the commission men seldom cared 
what the fruit brought. Sometimes the grower not only 
received no returns for his crop, but also was compelled to 
pay the freight, or a part of it, to make up a deficit. These 
conditions did not bode well, and the famous " golden apples 
of Hesperides" promised to be a disappointing dream. 
Happily, this drawback has long since ceased through the co- 
operative efforts of the Fruit Growers Association, which now 
handles the orange crop of Southern California at a minimum 
cost, distributes it to the best markets and has thus brought 
that enterprise to the most perfect cooperative system in the 
world. 

136 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 137 

A CITRUS FAIR 

The gradual maturing of the orange groves and the pros- 
pects of fine fruitage, determined the colonists to make known 
to the world their excellence and the further promise of their 
groves. The schoolhouse was fitted up for an exhibition of 
them and on March 24th, 1880, the first Citrus Fair was held. 
It was a source of surprise and gratification, this display of 
fruit, on account of its superior quality and the successful 
culmination of the endeavor of the colonists, in at least so far 
as successful orange growing was concerned. In fact, at a 
subsequent exhibit at a Los Angeles fair in 1881, the Pasadena 
display took first prize for quality against the whole county 
competition. 




THE VILLAGE CENTER, 1884 
Hotel, Post Office, School 



Again in 1885, a second Citrus Fair was held in Pasadena, 
one of its objects being to raise funds to assist the public 
library enterprise, then struggling along. Its opening was 
designated "Iowa Day" as a tribute to the earnest struggles 
of the many residents of that state living here. Such leading 
lowans as Sherman Washburn, J. H. Painter, B. F. Ball, 
L. D. Hollingsworth, S. Townsencl, John Allin, and others of 
their ilk, had labored assiduously in behalf of the Colony 
since their coming. Of course everyone, men and women, 
regardless of the state from which they hailed, added their 
efforts to make their fair a success, as of course it was. I 
remember that one agreeable incident in connection with this 
fair was a talk given by George W. Peck, of "Peck's Bad 



138 PASADENA— HISTOBICAL AND PERSONAL 

Boy" fame, proprietor of the Milwaukee Sun and one time 
Governor of Wisconsin. He was spending the winter in 
Pasadena and published some fine letters in his paper 
eulogistic of Pasadena. Peck gave a characteristically 
humorous address which was much enjoyed by his audience. 
Mrs. Jeanne Carr also contributed much toward the success 
of this fair. She had been doing active work in her way to 
promote the welfare and happiness of the colonists. Mrs. 
Carr was a scholarly woman and had made a special study 
of horticulture, also of the possibilities of silk-worm culture, 
which had been attracting some public attention at that time. 
She had planted a number of mulberry trees on her Car- 
melita ranch in order to grow the silk-worm and to carry on 
some experiments. Some of the trees can yet be seen at 
Carmelita. Mrs. J. R. Giddings became similarly interested 
and also planted some mulberry trees at her home place on 
East Colorado Street. One of these is yet growing, a 
reminder of that unsuccessful experiment in silk culture. The 
size of this tree commands attention as well as on another 
account; for under its great spread of boughs one hundred 
pioneers have enjoyed the hospitality of its owners, and there 
listened to stories told by fellow pioneers of their early strug- 
gles and successes. Another tree of note is an immense 
eucalyptus that grows upon the grounds of the late Moritz 
Rosenbaum on Grand Avenue. This was planted on the one 
hundredth anniversary of America's declaration of liberty, 
July 4th, 1876, and was one of the first eucalyptus trees 
planted in Pasadena, 

Before the lands were utilized for farming and for 
orchards they were adorned with live oak trees singly or in 
groups scattered here and there. These produced a very 
picturesque parklike effect, and it seemed like vandalism to 
sacrifice them. Probably no more beautiful grove of oaks 
exists than can be seen at Anoakia, the ranch of Mrs. Anita 
Baldwin, and it is to "Lucky" Baldwin's credit that he, dur- 
ing his long life, protected these trees with jealous care and, 
it is said, provided for their protection in his last testament. 

The county supervisors have performed a labor of love 
which will insure them the gratitude of coming generations 
by planting the county boulevards with alternating pine and 
oak trees. They also placed wire trellises and planted roses 
which in many cases throve and make gratifying beauty 




PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 139 

spots, adding much to the happiness 
of a journey along these highways. 

It has been claimed that the first 
eucalyptus trees planted in Califor- 
nia were set out on the Santa Anita 
Ranch by Judge Eaton about 1858. 
On the slopes about Altadena, and 
particularly in the heart of what is 
now our city — notably along Fair 
Oaks Avenue — there were acres upon 
acres of brilliant California poppies, 
the Eschscholtzia, the California 
State flower. When in bloom these 
appeared literally as a cloth of gold 
unrolled upon a field of emerald. 
Even today wild flowers a plenty are 
found upon the mesas and hills, 
everywhere indeed in the vicinity of 
Pasadena where the plough has not 
destroyed the seed of past seasons. " THE BANBURY TWINS ' 

A friend claimed he counted almost one hundred varieties of 
wild flowers one spring clay within the radius of half a mile. 

In the Arroyo bottom and banks, or on the untilled lands 
toward Devil's Gate, may yet be found thousands of bright 
blossoms when the rains of winter and the following sun- 
shine coax them forth. Even during the colder months of 
winter — January and February — the rambler may see rich 
floral treasures. They are at their best after seasonable 
soaking rains admonish them of their destiny. A botanist 
will view with joy the specimens of the baby blue eyes, penas- 
temons, the solanums and the canterbury bells. 

The alfileria, with its purple head, bowing before the soft 
winds, the pink shooting stars coyly snuggling away from too 
ardent gaze, and the lupin and marigold scattering blue and 
gold — a marvelous mantle that spreads itself everywhere on 
these glowing slopes and meadows — like an exquisite flower- 
ing sea at flood tide ! No one may say, with all the iconoclasm 
of city strife, that he may not find such treasures for the 
seeking, for there are hundreds of acres to be found where 
the ruthless plow has not yet destroyed these perennial glo- 
ries. And in the reserved lands of the Arroyo bottoms the 
city fathers will see to it that this will be ever so. 



140 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

It is worthy of mention here that the city commissioners 
have already considered the extinction of the California 
poppy, and have set aside a tract of fifteen acres where this 
flower will be protected and maintained, and where the flower 
lover may cull at pleasure the beautiful golden cups. It is 
well now and then to have public officials in whose breasts 
linger a germ of fine sentiment ! 

Prior to the advent of the San Gabriel Valley Railroad, 
communication with Los Angeles was by stage, if one did not 
use his own equine. The first public conveyance was driven 
by D. M. Graham, as heretofore related ; but as Graham was 
only " playing' ' Jehu, he did not continue in this pastime 
after travel became such as to impose troublesome obliga- 
tions. W. T. Vore bought out Graham and a regular stage 
line was soon established, with a large stage or tally-ho, 
carrying twelve passengers, and making a trip each way — 
at first every other day, then daily. The stage carried the 
mail and its arrival was the event of the day, for the settlers, 
separated thousands of miles from their loved ones, w^ere 
eager to receive messages from the distant ones. The little 
postoffice was the busiest place and centered more heart 
interest than any other spot in the colony for a time each day. 
Vore continued the stage line until the railroad arrived in 
1886, and relegated the stage into the limbo of the has-beens. 

An old advertisement in a Los Angeles paper reads : 

"The Pasadena Stage will leave the Cosmopolitan Hotel, 
North Main Street, Los Angeles, daily at 9 A. M., remaining 
in Pasadena for four hours, to give visitors an opportunity 
to see the country before returning. " So it will be seen that 
at this early day (late 70s) some were alive to the desira- 
bleness of this land and its potentialities as a place of resi- 
dence; and it is presumed that no wandering stranger was 
overlooked when he was found ambling about the Colony, for 
even in almost the earliest years some one might — just might 
— sell him something! 

Two Hotels in One Yeak 

In the summer of 1883 T. E. Martin of San Jose visited 
the Colony and made his headquarters at the waiter's phar- 
macy, being an old friend. He found Pasadena desirable and 
fixed his attention upon the southwest corner of Fair Oaks 
Avenue and Colorado Street as a suitable spot to build a 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 141 

hotel. This was a corner of Alexander F. Mills ' ranch, being 
part of his peach orchard. 

There was about one acre in this corner, and Mills wanted 
$1,000 for it. Martin was willing, bnt inasmnch as there was 
no agent's commission to pay, wanted the amount of the com- 
mission deducted. There was a week's interchange of diplo- 
matic dickerings, ending with Martin obtaining the deduc- 
tion. The purchase made, Martin at once began operations, 
and in a few months the "Martin Block" was finished and 
rented to E. C. Webster for hotel purposes. A dining room 
was located on the ground floor, other rooms being arranged 
for stores. 

In the meantime, Isaac Banta, who had purchased the 
"Lake Vineyard House," the original hotel, decided to build 
"downtown." "The Los Angeles House" was the outcome 
of this desire and was built on the northwest corner of Fair 
Oaks Avenue and Colorado Street — just opposite Martin's 
building — and these two hotels gave a businesslike air to the 
Colony. 

The year 1883 ended the Colony's first decade, its pioneer 
experiment, and it was found at this stage to be prospering 
and moving onward. 

At least 1,000 persons were residents in the community 
and its experimental stage had passed. 

The count of population at the time, taken by Rev. R. W. C. 
Farnsworth, in his book, "A Southern California Paradise," 
Pasadena's first history, states that 271 adult males lived in 
Pasadena in July, 1883. Using this for a basis, and counting 
from some personal knowledge, I believe that about 1,000 
persons, in 200 families, is a fairly accurate census for that 
year. These were made up principally from the following 
states and countries, giving number of adult males only: 
Iowa, 62; Illinois, 29; Massachusetts, 26; Indiana, 18; New 
York, 17; Missouri, 11; Canada, 11; Ohio, 9; England, 9; 
California, 8; Connecticut, 7; balance scattering. 

Additions were being made to the business life, new shops 
and stores being opened, and conditions were favoring further 
extension in this direction. 

Cruickshank's Dry Goods Store, a pretentious one for the 
time, had been opened in Mullin's Block on South Fair Oaks 
Avenue in 1884. 

Williams & Hotaling opened a meat store, and H. C. Hotal- 



142 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

ing, now a prosperous and popular citizen, business man, 
banker, etc., is proud of the fact that he participated to this 
extent, in pioneering. In 1883 The Pasadena Chronicle made 
its debut and filled the hearts of all with pleasure, for surely 
now the destiny of the erstwhile "Colony" was fixed. 
Charles M. Daly was the originator of the newspaper scheme, 
with Ben E. Ward financial sponsor (see newspaper history). 

T. P. Lukens made his debut in 1880 as the first real estate 
dealer, but had no office other than "under his hat" in the 
beginning. Ward Brothers claim to have established the 
first real estate "office," and doubtless did so, it being a 
little nook under the stairway leading upstairs to Williams 
Hall. Ward Brothers were good hustlers, and when oppor- 
tunity later came did a large and profitable business. Ben 
Ward became county assessor, filling the office with credit. 

It was in 1884 that the first bank was organized. It was 
called the "Pasadena Bank," the proprietors possibly believ- 
ing it would be the only bank ever needed here. P. M. Green 
was the moving spirit and became its first president, serving 
as such until his decease. The First National bank is the 
evolution of that beginning (see Banks). In this, as in many 
other progressive movements, P. M. Green showed his pluck 
and his wisdom, and no man was more esteemed or had more 
friends in Pasadena. It is a pleasure to have opportunity 
of saying this much for one who was long Pasadena's "first 
citizen" and a leader in good citizenship. 



Thus we find, after ten years had rolled by, that the old 
Indiana Colony had outgrown the original conception of it. 
Instead of a mere fruit-growing community, carried on with 
altruistic inclinations and mutual co-operation of purpose, it 
was a village, with "town" or "city" written into its per- 
spective. This was not the pioneer's plan or expectation, 
but it was not, of course, an unacceptable outlook to contem- 
plate when it seemed approaching. 

The money-making or land-speculating virus had not yet 
inoculated them and they were reasonably content. While 
the first decade had been full of struggles, no one who had 
fought the fight and stayed with it regretted the effort or 
was discouraged. For these struggles had their compensa- 
tions not only in their success of material accomplishment, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



143 



but in the consolations that are found in the mingling and 
co-operation of earnest people. 

I have not attempted to recite a roster of conspicuous 
names of those who were most active factors, nor will I, pre- 
ferring to mention them when possible in connection with the 
activities that engaged them. 





CHAPTER XXII 

The Boom — Millionaires of a Day 

AND IT CAME TO PASS THAT A MIRACULOUS THING OCCURRED AND EVERY- 
BODY BECAME TEMPORARY MILLIONAIRES — OR THOUGHT THEY WERE 

ALSO WERE BEREFT OF SAFE AND SANE UNDERSTANDING ABOUT 

CERTAIN MATTERS. 

HE end of the first decade and the beginning of the 
next, saw Pasadena safely past its most serious 
struggle for existence and pushing forward to a 
greater prosperity through the utilization of its 
natural resources. There had been a steady influx 
of new settlers, business houses had increased, real money 
was becoming more in evidence. The attention of the out- 
side world was being attracted by the reputation of the cli- 
matic conditions and the natural beauties of the place itself. 
Then there came, suddenly and unexpectedly, a phenomenal 
happening which threw all forecasts into the discard and 
wrote a new and extraordinary page in the history of the 
budding town of Pasadena. 

In chronicling some of the events of the two or three 
years which constituted these marvelous occurrences and 
which transformed a placid and bucolic settlement into a city 
of frenzied speculators, I find conflicting memories of quick- 
ening events thronging and surging in their efforts to adjust 
themselves in a correct attitude about that amazing period. 
The recapitulation of the astonishing affairs that filled the 
so called "boom" period would require a greater volume 
than this; space permits only a glimpse at the "high spots." 
They were indeed frenzied days and mere words can give no 
adequate conception of them. The survivors, no matter what 
disasters fell to their lot, now smile reminiscently, mayhap 
sadly, when reminded of those two stirring years. Some of 
them gnash their teeth ! 

It was a strange overturning that began in 1886 and drove 
hitherto placid-minded, contented citizens to acts of frenzy 
and drew to the village of Pasadena thousands of boomers 
and speculators, turning the ordinary conditions topsy-turvy 

144 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 145 

and firing the imagination of the most phlegmatic. It was a 
rabid procession of men — and women, too, for women par- 
ticipated — that crossed the horizon and for a brief period 
filled it to the exclusion of all normal affairs and transac- 
tions. The professional left his office, the mechanic his shop, 
the merchant his counter and the farmer abandoned his 
plough, all to engage in that mad quest for quick wealth 
which obsessed them and was for a time their ruling passion. 
It made remarkable reading for Southern California history. 
There had been but occasional movements in real estate 
prior to the end of 1885. Now and then some one would 
drop into the village of Pasadena and buy ten or twenty 




LOOKING EAST FROM FAIR OAKS AVE. ON COLORADO ST., 1882 
Hollingsworth House Top of Hill to right 

acres of land and pay from $100 to $300 per acre, according 
as to whether improved and how. In 1886 there was a sudden 
stimulus; why, no one can exactly say. In 1887 Southern 
California, especially Los Angeles and Pasadena, was on the 
high plane of boom prices, and in 1888 — the beginning of that 
year — it had reached the climax: the blue, blue sky! Then 
it was facilis decensus, indeed! leaving numerous putative 
"millionaires" stranded, financial wrecks — dazed and amazed 
at the sudden and tragic conclusion of their dreams. This 
quick finish to their rose-hued visions was sickening and 
remorseless. It was incomprehensible, but it was certain 

10 



146 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

and definite, for the notice from the bank and the exhausted 
account there proved it! 

During that brief period of two years or so, the population 
of Pasadena grew from less than 2,000 to more than 12,000 — 
probably 15,000 — all of whom lived in a whirlwind of excite- 
ment, speculation and mental aberration. The song of the 
robin in the Arroyo was forgotten, and the orchestration of 
the mocking-birds was unheeded, because the siren cry of the 
dealer in lots and the flubdub of speculators on the street 
corners drowned those sweet carols in more unusual and now 
more attractive strains. 

It was a strange spectacle to see normally sober-minded 
man go into paroxysms over some little subdivision of acres 
he had invested in "for a flyer,' ' and instantly turn him into 
a wild-eyed booster for that particular piece of property. 
That late conservative mind was overturned by the prospect 
of a golden future. He who heretofore looked upon a few 
hundred dollars with respect, now conversed in five or six 
figures; and he whose wildest dreams of fortune had been a 
few thousands "at interest,' ' "in his old age," and a com- 
fortable cottage with the mortgage paid off, now refused to 
contemplate less than real wealth. Luckless the man who did 
not own a lot — several lots. It was easy to buy and it was 
just as easy to sell ; or it was for a time. When the head of 
the family departed in the morning for his usual occupation 
his farewell kiss to his spouse was given fleetingly and with 
a promise to "buy something" that day. His spouse, none 
the less interested, advised John to "be sure and get that 
fine corner" on Euclid, on Colorado, or on some other 
attractive spot, so that it could be resold, right off, for a hun- 
dred or so advance! And it would be a cool reception for 
John if he returned lotless that evening. 

Then there were the brass bands parading the most popu- 
lous thoroughfares announcing an auction in the "Paradise 
Subdivision," the "Arroyo Tract," or in — in the "Fall and 
Fainters' Addition" — "Free lunch served, music in plenty, 
and terms easy." Who wouldn't fall for it? 

Strangers, drawn hither by this glittering opportunity, 
became dealers, and surged through the streets tempting own- 
ers with attractive propositions ; and the owner, though loving 
his little five or ten acre home, separated himself from it — 
reluctantly perhaps — but tempted to fall by the wonderful 
golden bait. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



147 



What crop could produce more luxuriantly, no matter if 
it were the golden apples of Hesperides, than that which 
came when this same ten acres became the " Arcadian Sub- 
division" with Paradise attachments — so much cash down, 
balance in two or three equal payments? So this great 
demesne of orchards, orange groves, vineyards and happy 
homes resolved itself into Brown's, Jones' or Bobinson's 
subdivisions, with the purse of Fortunatus dangling to each 
lot. 

HOW IT CAME TO PASS 

As heretofore described, the Colony had moved onward, 
and in a way "got along" during its first decade, growing to 




Looking North on Fair Oaks from Colorado, 1886 

a substantial community. There were stores, shops and 
places of business sufficient to supply most of the needs of the 
people. A bank and a newspaper had come. Home-made gas 
had been introduced into two stores and a brass band! 
Several other enterprises had shown the trend of events, all 
of which foreshadowed prosperity. 

"Barney" Williams' store had acquired the first telephone 
in December, 1882, and a sweet girl had said, ' ' Hello ! ' ' over 
it to Wesley Bunnell. There was a drug store and two phy- 
sicians, and there were two hotels and a Masonic lodge also. 
More important than all, a railroad had come in 1885, and 



148 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

had wakened strange echoes in the valley and canyons beyond, 
where not long ago it was so peaceful and quiet. 

The Eaymond Hotel was finished in 1886, and some more 
substantial structures were begun, or were finished, by this 
time, and especially the Exchange Block, costing $75,000, 
had been opened with ponderous ceremony. So the year 
1885-86 stirred things from their village torpor and started 
some long-visioned ones to garrulous prophecies. The local 
paper of September 25th, 1885, said, "A boom has struck 
West Colorado Street." D. Evey had paid as much as $1,500 
for one acre in that neighborhood, giving twenty-five feet on 
the west side thereof to open a new street (De Lacy). Mrs. 
Carr gave the same amount on the other side for the same 
purpose. 

Then a few more sales were announced in that locality, 
notably the Los Angeles House, belonging to Isaac Banta, was 
sold for $25,000 to the Pasadena Bank Corporation early in 
1886, with the announced intention of building a fine bank 
building on the Fair Oaks corner. Out of this tract, and just 
west of the bank corner, Henry G. Bennett, James Smith and 
B. F. Ball had each purchased lots at a price of $50 per front 
foot on Colorado Street. About this time there entered a 
new personage whose numerous purchases attracted atten- 
tion and contributed much to stir up interest in real estate, 
therefore becoming the means of adding new values. This 
was General Edwin Ward (father of Victor Ward), who one 
fine day dropped into the office of Ward Brothers, real estate 
dealers, and set things buzzing. Ben Ward, ever affable, 
received the visitor with his usual facile pleasantry and 
desired to know the gentleman's business. "Well," said the 
General, "I want to buy some real estate." That was all. 
"Did they have anything to sell!" Did they? Indeed they 
had, and plenty of it ! Muy pronto, they got busy and affable, 
as became real estate dealers with a prospective customer. 
The first purchase by the General was the Martin Block (Web- 
ster Hotel), on the corner, for $17,500. Then came a few lots 
on Colorado Street and numerous potential purchases else- 
where. Ward Brothers were in clover, the General delighted 
and the town agog over the large and sudden demand for 
real estate, and there was a sympathetic rise over night. 
But Ed Webster, who had come into the real estate arena "on 
a shoestring," on the lookout and ready to meet all comers, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



149 



got a "hunch" that General Ward was meant for himself 
alone, and "laid for him'' — in the parlance of the street. It 
was not long ere Webster had pried the General away from 
Ward Brothers and was loading him up with miscellaneous 
pieces of realty; also many schemes and pipe-dreams such 
as Aladdin might have incubated in his hours of hardest labor. 
Webster was good with palaver and Ward "warmed up" to 
him. 

Dr. Radebaugh, the original Esculapius of the Colony 
and its Chesterfield as well, then occupied as an office and 
abode a little cottage just where the Exchange Block now 
stands. The good medico believed this to be his lifetime 
abode, but when General Ward offered him about $5,000 for 




South on Fair Oaks from Colorado, 1886 



it he decided he had been living in error and accepted the 
offer with alacrity. I think he had paid $250 for it five years 
before. Ward then purchased some adjoining lots for about 
the same figure, and prepared to build, with some others, 
the Exchange Block. As a boom example, let us further 
pursue the fortunes of Dr. Radebaugh. Selling the afore- 
said lot, he purchased fifty feet on the northwest corner of 
Colorado Street and Euclid Avenue for $1,750. The devel- 
oping boom pursued him and he sold this property in the 
following year for $6,000. 

Desiring to get out of the way of such annoying things as 



150 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

booms, the doctor then bought on Euclid Avenue, north of 
the one just sold, and moved thereon his cottage and other 
effects which he had steadfastly retained, treating them as 
family heirlooms. In due course this last property went the 
usual way, and the doctor has been afraid to buy since lest 
some one might try to move him out! 

The Exchange Bank Company was organized by Webster, 
with General Ward, A. Cruickshank, Gr. A. Swartwout and 
the Harper & Reynolds Company of Los Angeles, each of 
the last three members agreeing to occupy a part of the 
ground floor for various business and banking purposes. 
Swartwout was the organizer of the Pasadena National Bank. 
This agreement was carried out and the Exchange Block 
became the center of business and so remained for many years. 
The first brick business block was built in August, 1885, by 
Craig & Hubbard on the north side of Colorado Street, where 
the Brunswick billiard rooms are, and the second — a two-story 
building — near it, by E. S. Frost the same year. It can be 
seen there with the date upon it yet. In 1886 the writer began 
building the first brick building on the south side of the same 
block. When the foundation of this building was begun 
Dr. J. C. Michener, who owned the adjoining lot, also began 
building and joined me in a "party wall" agreement. This 
is No. 12 East Colorado Street, and is mentioned merely as a 
historical record. We set these buildings back six feet beyond 
the street line to widen. These were some of the movements 
leading up to the ' i excitement. ' ' 

Pasadena 's Fikst Subdivision and Lot Auction 

auction of the doctor conger tract. school lot auction. 

Although numerous sales of property had been made dur- 
ing the year 1885 which caused considerable stiffening in 
prices, few actual lot subdivisions had been offered to the 
public and no "auction sale" of lots had yet been heard of. 
Dr. 0. H. Conger, who owned twenty acres cornering on 
Colorado Street and Orange Grove Avenue, decided to plat a 
part of this land into residence lots for quick sale. He sold 
part of his tract to a syndicate, who put it into the hands of 
Ward Brothers and who organized an auction sale to occur 
September 25th, 1885. It was a new departure in Pasadena, 
and with its accompaniments, created both interest and amuse- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 151 

ment. Much advertising was done and a special train was 
run from Los Angeles, a band paraded the street, and a free 
lunch served to all that desired it as one of the attractions. 
The tract consisted of eighty-four lots lying south of Colo- 
rado Street, and was bisected by Vernon Avenue, which street 
was opened for the purpose of making this subdivision. 
An advertisement at that time reads as follows : 

Eighty Beautiful Villa and Homestead Lots 
pure mountain water piped to each and every lot. 

"This charming property, now world renowned, having 
been visited by leading tourists. * * * The orange and 
lemon trees are heavy with abundance of golden fruit. 
* . * * The vineyard prolific in its bearing of delightful 
and palatable Muscat grapes. Free lunch for 500 people. A 
fine band of music will discourse popular airs on the grounds. 
Etc., etc., 

"Sale September 25th, 1885. For further information 
apply to Ward Brothers. J. C. Bell, Auctioneer, Pasadena.' ' 



The lots were 50x150 feet each, and the crowd attracted 
was fairly large, most of them coming out of curiosity. Nearly 
all of the lots were sold, prices varying from $180 to $550 
each, the highest price being paid by C. S. Martin for a lot 
cornering on Colorado Street. Within two years this lot 
changed hands for $8,000, but later, with the collapsed boom, 
fell to its original value. It is valued at $12,000 or more now. 

This syndicate was composed of Henry G. Bennett, P. M. 
Green, A. O. Porter and Ward Brothers. This was Pasa- 
dena's first land syndicate and lot auction. Its sale netted 
the owners about $7,000 profit, a satisfactory return, as then 
considered. 

A few others had anticipated a boom and had subdivided 
some acreage into residence property in 1885. George E. 
Meharry was one of the first. He owned ten acres where 
stands the Maryland Hotel and offered this in lots in Novem- 
ber, 1885. 

I believe the Olivewood tract was offered in 1885. In 
1886 — in August — the Bertram tract of fifty-six lots (on North 
Orange Grove Avenue) was offered, and as an inducement 



152 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

two houses were given, by lot, to the lucky purchasers. This 
was about the only lottery of the kind tried in Pasadena. 

It was difficult to attract attention to property farther 
east than the Santa Fe track. Wesley Bunnell offered the 
newly organized Pasadena Bank a lot free if they would 
build just east of the track — that was just opposite the South- 
ern Pacific Depot. H. J. Woollacott, who owned the site 
where the Chamber of Commerce stands, also offered it as an 
addition to Bunnell's proposition. Neither propositions were 
seriously considered ! 

Sale of School Lots — 1886 

Then occurred the school lot sale, which gave the final 
impetus towards a real boom in prices and a boost for specu- 
lations which culminated in the great boom. Of course, no 
one was contemplating such a thing as a boom then; indeed, 
few knew the meaning of the word in Pasadena, but it was 
nevertheless smoldering and needed only some spectacular 
event to introduce it. The combination of a railroad — the 
Los Angeles & San Gabriel Valley — the numerous sales around 
the "center," the Conger auction, and, finally, the school lot 
auction, was leading to it — the beginning of the great specu- 
lative era which followed. 

The school trustees had decided that better school facili- 
ties were required, that a new school building was imperative, 
and that a lot must be procured farther away from the "busi- 
ness" center. So it was decided to sell the Central School 
property, consisting of five acres, on the southeast corner of 
Colorado Street and Fair Oaks Avenue. Trustees H. W. 
Magee, S. Washburn and A. 0. Bristol decided to subdivide 
this property into business lots and auction it off. They had 
it mapped into thirty-five lots of twenty-five feet frontage, 
facing Colorado Street, Baymond and Fair Oaks avenues, and 
advertised the sale. 

On March 12th, 1886, the sale occurred, occasioning con- 
siderable attention from local buyers. M. H. Weight bought 
the first lot, cornering on Colorado Street and Fair Oaks 
Avenue, paying $148 per front foot, or $3,700, for it. The 
prices gradually declined towards Baymond Avenue, the 
southeast corner of that street, two lots, selling to "Tom" 
Hoag for $61.50 per front foot. (Vore and Hoag built a 
livery barn there.) Just east of the Hoag purchase the vil- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



153 



lage library occupied 100 feet frontage upon which that asso- 
ciation had a lease for twenty years. By previous under- 
standing this lot was bid in for the library for the nominal 
price of $170 and later deeded to that association. (Two 
years later it sold for $10,000.) The above prices are noted 
for the attention of the curious today. Compare them with 
the present values of from $1,000 to $2,000 per foot at which 
this property is now held. Only one of the original pur- 
chasers of the Colorado Street frontage kept that property. 
This is Mrs. W. W. Mills, who paid $1,250 for a lot— $50 per 
foot, lot No. 12— No. 46 East Colorado Street. 

Of course, no one then anticipated that a city would spring 
up upon these lands and a thriving business center be estab- 



,!*•;?? 




Auction of School Lots, March 12, 1886 

lishecl upon the one-time school lot, and perhaps it would not 
had the school trustees retained it for school uses. 

Let me relate an amusing incident in connection with this 
sale. An old man, an evident stranger, had been attentively 
watching the auctioneer as lot after lot was bid for and 
knocked down. Several times he seemed about to bid, but ap- 
parently changed his mind and thought better of it. But pres- 
ently a lot on the Fair Oaks front was offered, the auctioneer 
with his usual flourish exclaiming, "lam offered thirty dol- 



154 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

lars, I am offered thirty dollars; I hear thirty-five — forty! 
I am offered for-t-y! Do I hear any more?" Then the old 
fellow finally woke up, and eagerly said, "I bits fordy-dree 
dollars." " Forty-three, forty-three dollars per foot! Gen- 
tlemen, I am bid forty- three dollars — per front foot!" 
exclaimed the auctioneer. The old man stood transfixed, his 
mouth agape, then finally gasped, "Vat, for de foot? I bits 
fordy-dree dollars for de lot!" "Oho, my friend," said the 
auctioneer, "the price is forty-three dollars per front foot." 
The stranger, sadly disconcerted at his mistake, with a gasp- 
ing cry, disappeared in the crowd and was seen no more ! 
The total amount received for the sale was $44,772 — for five 
acres in the heart of Pasadena ! What is it worth now? The 
price was thought good at the time, and from the proceeds 
was built the Wilson High School — now grammar school — 
which was the result desired. But it stirred things a little ! 



These, then, were some of the potent factors that led up 
to the celebrated boom in Pasadena. But the boom was not 
a local manifestation, though, strange and incomprehensible, 
it was practically confined to Southern California. No one 
can say why this was so any more than it can be explained 
why it came at all. There were no gold discoveries to allure 
the crowd, there were no important industrial developments 
to attract attention, and no oil gushers had gushed ! Climate 
and attractiveness of environment there were, but they had 
always been, and they alone need not drive men speculation 
mad or disturb their reasoning faculties. Some tourist hotels 
had been opened; a railroad had come in to give the East- 
ern traveler an opportunity to see this new, admirable and 
hitherto comparatively unknown land. It was to this Eastern 
visitor, to some extent, that we owe the discovery of the rare 
value of the things that lay at our doors and were taken 
largely as a matter of course ; and it was the Eastern specu- 
lator with cash and with fervid optimism who inaugurated 
the boom itself. It is asserted that it really had its origin 
at Coronado. Speculators divided most of that island into 
town lots, and sold them at a widely advertised auction in 
1885, setting that section afire with a speculative fever which, 
like a contagion, spread northward to Los Angeles, Santa 
Barbara and all intervening places. Hampton L. Story of 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



155 



Altadena, and a few associates, were responsible for the Coro- 
nado enterprise which netted them fortunes apiece. One of 
the results of that sale was the Hotel del Coronado, which 
afterwards sunk fortunes for its builders. San Diego was 
driven mad over this speculation and began its new develop- 
ment after a hypnotic sleep of many years. Next arrived the 
contagion of speculation in Los Angeles, Avith its population 
of but 15,000 to 20,000, and in Pasadena, one-tenth that size. 
In two years the population of these towns grew six hundred 
per cent! And each whistle of the locomotive announced 
large accessions to these numbers — a surging, good-natured 
crowd of boomers. For the newcomer, as soon as he stepped 
from his Pullman and found his bearings, quickly joined the 
grand chorus. 

And the welcome extended the stranger, was at once gen- 
erous and hearty. The real estate man was at the depot 
when the trains arrived — alert for his prey. Spied he the 
man toting the grip, with the look of a stranger on his counte- 
nance, and at once the welcoming hand was extended, the 
invitation given for a free ride about town with no refusal 
permitted, and willy-nilly, away the bewildered visitor was 
whisked to view "The finest place in the universe, sir!" 
After that ride and its incidental hospitalities it would be a 
dour one indeed who could escape. Cigars — perhaps drinks — 
on the sly ! even bed and board were proffered, and that, too, 
in honorable good faith ; for, so far as I ever knew, no intended 
deception or fraud was ever practiced by any regular real 
estate dealer of Pasadena during the entire boom period, which 
is something to be proud of, consider- 
ing the times and the opportunities. It 
can be said also of the boomer — he be- 
lieved in his own little stories. He be- 
lieved what he told others, and what 
was told him about the present and 
prespective values in Pasadena real 
estate, its climate and its future. No 
prophecy was too exaggerated to as- 
tonish him. His imagination dwelt and ^ 
grew upon the provender his fellows --1ft 
furnished, and which he in turn passed ^^^ 
around. He oozed optimism and he © 
preached the golden dreams of Alnas- A p rospe ctive Buyer 




156 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

char — with more happy ending. He invested in limitless ex- 
pectations with the confidence of a lucky gambler who plays 
only on lucky days. If he found he had " overplayed his hand," 
he accepted the result with the same spirit as he did his better 
luck, and tried again. It was this confidence, this optimism, 
that made the real estate boomer the success he was, and 
caused himself to believe that a million was a small thing to 
get and an easy thing to keep ; and to him I must give credit 
for the evolution that two years produced, be it for good or be 
it for ill, in its final results. 

By the end of 1886 the boom was on in its full vigor. 
Newspapers the country over were printing stories about it 
that filtered out from the local press and otherwise. Cor- 
respondents were coming into the country to write about the 
wonderful thing. They wrote back to their journals astonish- 
ing tales of how lots bought in the morning were doubled in 
price and sold before evening! At least so 'twas said, for 
these correspondents were wined and dined, and often fell 
into the hands of Philistines, otherwise glib-tongued agents, 
who filled them up with tales of marvelous transactions which 
they had put through, of the wonderful climate, and of untold 
things yet in store. No paper city this, where over night 
might flee these boomers and with them disappear the rain- 
bow with its pot of gold. 

But it was not all mere buying and selling. A town was 
being built where vacant land had been. The tap, tap of the 
hammer, the merry zip of the saw, went on unceasingly and 
evolved homes, cottages (no bungalows then) and dwellings 
yet more imposing and costly. Streets were laid out as if 
for permanency. During these throes a city government was 
organized, and the "Colony" became legally qualified to per- 
form the functions of a "city." But men — some of them at 
least — attended to their ordinary business, for business also 
prospered even if they engaged in booming "on the side." 
So there was method as well as madness prevailing. Pasa- 
dena was not alone in this passionate drama of speculation. 
Towns were laid out where had been blooming orchards and 
grain fields all over Southern California. Subdividers set 
their stakes in once prolific vineyards, and even the sandy 
courses of a dry arroyo (to be flood-ridden in winter perhaps) 
were pre-empted for the illusory schemes of busy schemers, 
and yielded their quota of "villa" lots. Los Angeles, too, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



157 



was in the throes. San Diego in delirium, and each hamlet 
and crossroads whose denizens had in the beginning looked 
on in stupefied amazement, presently woke up and displayed 
the sign manual of the boomer — the map of a subdivision! 
In some of these hamlets — Azusa, for example — buyers stood, 
or sat, in line all one night, awaiting the auspicious hour next 
day when the sale would begin of a certain plat of lots so that 
they could have first choice! No one could explain why a 
recent piece of rocky land could, over night, assume such 
desirability, but few asked why. 

Subdivisions would be platted amidst boulders and sand, 
once regarded as worthless (and some were) and through 
the hypnotic call of the boomer these lots would find buyers 
frantic to get in on the ' ' ground floor. ' ' At Grlendora, twenty 
miles from Pasadena, a subdivision on one side of the railroad 
station was labeled, "Glendora," and on the other, adjoining, 
" Alosta!" And on each side of the station the sign read ac- 
cordingly. They were, in fact, rival ' ' towns ' ' with only a street 
(long since grass grown) dividing them. But there was at 
least one person in Pasadena who lived through it, unappre- 
ciative and unhappy because of all this financial turmoil. 
That was Isaac Banta. Banta had built the Los Angeles 
House, the first real hotel in Pasadena (after the Lake Vine- 
yard Hotel). He was peculiar in many ways, uncouth in 
his appearance, but withal a man of good " horse sense" and 
had made a fair fortune. One day Banta was making a 
purchase in Williams' store — this was in the very beginning 
of the boom days. From afar came the melody of a brass band 
performing the syncopated philanderings that announced a 
lot auction. The unwonted noise 
alarmed a ' l nag ' ' attached to a vehicle 
that stood in front of the store. At an 
unusual blare of horns the horse 
started down the street on a run. Two 
dogs, awakened from mongrel dreams, 
started after the horse and buggy, and 
became engaged in a noisy fight. The 
racket attracted Banta 's attention, 
and he started on a trot to ascertain 
the occasion of such commotion. He 
fell over a barrel of pickles, landing 
prone on the store porch. Rising to 



Ss 




158 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

his feet and gathering up his scattered purchases, he ex- 
claimed, "This d d town is getting too crowded for me. 

I'm going to move out." He did not move out, but he sold his 
property and soon afterward was called to his "home in the 
hills." 

Let me cite another story of "Old Man" Banta's pecu- 
liarities. While he was owner of the Lake Vineyard Hotel 
a drummer happened into the village, and deciding to remain 
over night, was directed to that hotel. He secured a room 
and his supper, then spent the evening with his friend, the 
druggist, and in due season returned to his hotel to retire. 
Reaching his room, what was his astonishment to find friend 
Banta cosily lying in his bed, smoking a pipe, the windows 
closed and the smoke filling the room with dense clouds ! Of 
course, the drummer objected to this proceeding, vigorously. 
Did the invader avaunt? He did not, but complacently con- 
tinuing his contemplation of Lady Nicotine, announced as his 
ultimatum that "the house was full" and that "he proposed 
to remain all night, just there." Furthermore, if Mr. Drum- 
mer did not like it, he could go elsewhere and to sundry places 
also named. It was a bad situation and there was no easy 
remedy. Being a drummer and seasoned, our friend finally 
made the best of it, went to bed with the invader, and passed 
a night full of discomfort and smoke. That was the drum- 
mer's last visit to Pasadena. 

Many a man came to Pasadena, hearing about the real 
estate excitement going on, "just to see what sort of fools 
we were," as he expressed it. He at first gazed upon the 
whole situation with scorn and amazement. Nothing could 
tempt him, said the wise one, to indulge in such crazy specu- 
lation; no, indeed! At first he was amazed, then interested, 
wondering what was below it all; then he became fascinated 
by watching the game. "Why not take a flyer myself, and 
get out quickly," was his reflection. When he arrived at 
that stage there was no hope; he fell, just like the rest. It 
was a great game indeed — while it lasted. 

I knew of many cases like that. Unfortunately, they did 
not all "get out" in a hurry, and with a fine profit, to attest 
their sagacity. No, indeed, the doubtful ones were just like 
others when once in the maelstrom of speculation. For exam- 
ple, I recall one man who came from an Eastern city where 
he had acquired a comfortable competency. He scorned the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



159 



deluded mortals who were speculating with fate and risking 
fortune. He had enough, anyhow, and his criticisms were 
severe and continuous — for a year ; then he, too, got the virus 
into his blood, entered the game — and lost all he had! The 
last I heard of him he was eking out a subsistence on a chicken 
ranch. But I knew another, smarter he was ; or perhaps only 
scared. He was a carpenter and had saved $1,000. In the 
boom's first throes he bought, made his money "spread," 
and by judicious and quick action finally had $30,000 * ' to the 
good." He awoke one day to the realization of his good 
fortune, and, also, to an apprehension that the miracle that 
had occurred to him was uncanny, and, in fact, so unreal that 
his quickly accrued winnings might disappear over night. He 
got badly scared, and going down to the bank obtained a draft 
for his entire balance, took a train for Boston, declaring he 
was going as far away from temptation as possible. He 
never came back. That was a wise man — for a speculator. 

Another: An erstwhile sober-sided, professional gentle- 
man had "gone in" to the limit. He struggled hard in the 
golden stream, and at last won out with $60,000 in the bank. 
"Enough," said his family, who were not avaricious. "No," 
so said he, "just one more turn and I will retire with an even 
hundred thousand." He went into a bigger scheme and it 
finished him, for he lost all he had in short order and died a 
poor man. This was nothing unusual, though. It was the 
fascination of making money rapidly that captured the 
imagination and held it. What simpler than buying a lot 
one day, raising the price twenty-five or fifty per cent, and 
selling it next day, or next week? Nothing, indeed. There 
was always a "sucker" ready to 
buy, and he was Johnny on the spot, 
waiting to be tempted. It was a dull 
day when a boomer could not make 
a sale and clean up a nice profit. Of 
course, he immediately bought 
again; then the other fellow made 
the profit and he was the ' ' sucker. ' ' 
Of course, this opprobrious term 
was never used aloud. Sometimes a 
piece of property was sold and re- 
sold several times before the title 
had been "brought down" in the 







160 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

first instance. Usually, then, the last seller was merely paid 
his equity and assigned the contract to the next in succession. 
All sales were made on "contract," that is, agreement, the 
seller accepting a trifle, say, ten per cent down, balance of first 
payment within thirty days. This gave the purchaser time to 
resell ere his first full payment became due. Sales were usually 
made for one-third cash, balance to be paid in six and twelve 
months from date of sale. Thus the speculator could do con- 
siderable buying with comparatively little money, and he 
usually went the limit. 

To E. C. Webster, "Ed" as he was familiarly known, must 
be given credit for many forward movements in the boom 
days. He was a speculator at all times, and would buy a 
subdivision in the planet Mars if the prospect scanned good. 
He did not confine his attention to merely buying and selling, 
but he often improved the property he bought. Besides build- 
ing numerous houses he began the Webster Building, which 
eventually became the Green Hotel. He was responsible for 
the Exchange Block, and he was also largely responsible for 
the opening of Raymond Avenue in 1886; and later, for the 
building of the Grand Opera House; also other large enter- 
prises. More than any other one man, I think, Webster did 
things that kept alive the boom spirit, and kept active the 
courage and the "nerve" of the boomers when the structure 
of it seemed to totter. "Ed" could approach a man who 
had no thought of participating in the proceedings going on 
about him; in ten minutes have him absorbed in a scheme, 
and in thirty drawing his check ! He could buy more, for less 
cash, than any other man in town, because he made the seller 
believe in him, and trust his capacity to pull through any 
proposition he handled. It did not matter as to the amount 
of the purchase he wanted to make ; the only point was, how 
little cash down would the seller take? This was the kind of 
"shoestring" business that was very popular in those lurid 
days. 

And Webster was always loyal to his town, no matter 
where or when; and he was instrumental in bringing such 
men as Colonel G. G. Green, William Morgan and Andrew 
McNally into the procession of investors — men whose money 
did so much for the community. 

Even yet I hear in imagination, the golden cadences of his 
persuasive tones as he pictured the dreams which possessed 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



161 




E. C. WEBSTER 
A Noted Boomer 



him. But alas ! his castles in the air 
tumbled and crushed him in the 
wreck. Too much "shoestring," the 
verdict. Today he is marking time, 
perhaps, and by the same token pur- 
suing the placid existence of an hum- 
ble Missouri farmer. I wonder if he 
ever dreams of those glorious days of 
frenzied finance out here where the 
Pacific murmurs % 

I have said that T. P. Lukens and 
Ward Brothers were the first realty 
dealers in Pasadena. So they were, 
but Edward McLean, who was inter- 
ested in the Mutual Orchard Com- 
pany's tract (Olivewood), was ac- 
tually the first dealer in Pasadena 
"dirt," so far as I can ascertain. 

However, his office was in its beginning in Los Angeles, and he 
advertised in the newspapers there, later moving to Pasadena 
to live. Washburn & Watts were close followers of Ward 
Brothers, and opened the first really pretentious real estate 
office, on the southwest corner of Colorado Street and Fair 
Oaks Avenue. Old files of the Pasadena Chronicle show inter- 
esting evidences of business in the early '80s. These files can 
be seen at the public library and form invaluable records of 
their day. The advertisers therein were factors in the 
growth of the Colony and in its early days. Some of them 
still are counted on in progressive movements towards the 
city's welfare. For instance, I note the names of W. R. 
Staats, T. P. Lukens, C. C. Brown, S. Washburn, H. W. Magee 
and Mel E. Wood as once advertisers in Pasadena's first 
paper, and the busy men in pioneer days. 

These men could be counted on at any time when the best 
interests of our community claimed their assistance. It is 
true of them yet. 

The interesting question has been many times asked, 
why, with such teeming opportunities, did not every one living 
here at the time get rich? In answer let me ask, can anyone 
now say just what Pasadena property will be worth thirty 
years hence? Of course not, yet it is a question more easily 
answered now than it was when the town was immature, 



162 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

inchoate and its future only guessed at. Some, indeed, did 
hold on to their rapidly acquired wealth, others held on to 
their property too long, or not long enough. That depended 
on the psychological moment. There was no basis of value 
then ; it was, what could a buyer be induced to pay ? 

Many amusing sidelights gave zest and picturesqueness 
to the times. An owner of a ten-acre place, which had cost 
him less than $2,000, sold it to a syndicate. It was platted 
into thirty lots and sold for $20,000 within three months. 
The original seller, who had hung about, afraid to reinvest, 
was so heartbroken that he would wander about his former 
place day and night, forlorn and in a daze. 

Another realized $5,000 from his ten-acre tract — that was 
early in the boom. He put it in a bank. Every day he would 
go down to the bank and look around, apparently afraid the 
bank might disappear in the night. Then he began to ask 
advice of the bank people as to what he would do with his 
money; but of course did not follow it. Finally he drew it 
all out, in gold, which he carried to his home and kept locked 
up. Becoming alarmed, he again took it back to the bank, 
and getting a "C. D." for it, carried that about until he lost 
it! Of course, he did not lose the money, but finally, after 
weeks of anguished consideration, was prevailed upon to 
invest it in solid mortgages. 

Few kept their investments in property very long. A 
lucky "turn" upset their normal minds and they were bitten 
with the fever. How could they help it? It was like the 
wheat pit of the exchange on a busy day. 

Jones would buy from Brown and sell to Smith ; Smith in 
turn would sell to Robinson — who sold to Jones ! An endless 
chain of buying and selling to each other. When a leading 
boomer bought in a certain direction, the "pikers" would 
follow helter-skelter. A speculator, noticing a prominent 
dealer looking at a certain piece of property, might slip away 
to the owner and anticipate the dealer by buying it ; then try 
to sell it to him. That was "smart" work, he thought. But 
it was not all speculation. Homes grew up in orange groves, 
orchards and vineyards. It was certain that the boomer 
believed in himself and in his town, for he "stayed with it" 
and swore by it and its future. The nouveaux riche were in 
evidence. What a harvest an automobile dealer would have 
had had there been such a thing then known! As it was, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 163 

they must be content with mere horses. But they bought 
fine ones, fast ones, and fine buggies and carriages, too. Dia- 
monds gleamed upon hitherto inviolate chests of manly owners, 
and spike-tailed coats appeared upon surprised and unaccus- 
tomed forms. Fond misses sported solitaires purchased by 
the now financially able Bill or Henry to seal his betrothal. 
Matrons — once honestly plain and shrinking — bloomed with 
necklaces of pearls ; and glittering dewdrops hung pendulous 
from shy, pink ears! Well-fitting "kids" of fashionable 
color covered hands calloused by contact with plough handle 
or jack plane. For now these humble tools of labor were 
sidetracked, and instead the owner disported check books with 
fountain pen accompaniment. Large, fat cigars with gold 
bands, displaced the nickel "perfecto," much to the gratifica- 
tion of the corner dealer and the chance beneficiary thereof. 

Hotels flourished and their crowding guests enjoyed the 
excitement, and partook of it. Young men gave "stag" din- 
ners, imbibed champagne and played poker, believing this the 
happy life! Some of the sudden rich gave grotesque imita- 
tions of heavy financiers — to the manner born. But there 
were others, more sober, more sedate, more self-contained, 
who kept their wits and gave their attention to more serious 
affairs ; and the village grew into a town. 

Looking backward upon the absurdities of the boom period 
one can easily censure and criticise, but the facile critic has- 
had no knowledge of the hypnotism of a rapidly rising market 
with his money on the bull side of it, else criticism would 
falter. Perhaps some are smarter than their fellows in such 
circumstances, but they are not always in evidence. Pros- 
pective gold mines, prospective oil gushers and roaring wheat 
pits bring about this fascinating speculative manifestation 
over and over, and every day has the same chronicle to record. 
Why such fevers occur with immovable real estate no man 
can fairly tell. It is a problem in psychology. 

Mad, mad, all, or nearly all, were mad! Men, too busy 
to give attention to legitimate affairs, or too indifferent to 
them, listened feverishly while bands played the grand march 
to the glittering parade. Fine equipages coursed through 
highways that were not so long ago bare fields or orange 
groves, the occupants radiant and self-satisfied in their fine 
new sartorial perfections. 

Men were building buildings. In 1885 $273,000 was thus 



164 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

employed, while $750,000 worth of real estate changed hands — 
quite phenomenal for a little town of 2,000, and the boom 
was but yet incubating. Colorado Street property then led 
in values — as it does today. Eentals hardly kept pace with 
prices. A storeroom eligibly located would bring but $50 to 
$75 per month. Even at the climax of the boom rentals did 
not become excessive, for an ordinary storeroom that rented 
for $50 per month when property was worth $200 per front 
foot did not pass the $100 mark when it reached $750 per 
foot — probably the high-water mark for rentals in boom times. 
(I refer to the standard sized store, 25x75 feet.) The busi- 
ness center did not begin to shift until about 1895. In 1886 
five acres on the southeast corner of Marengo and Colorado 
Street (where the First Methodist Church stands) sold for 
$5,000 for residence subdivision. A lot opposite the present 
Federal building, 71x300 feet, sold for $850 only, in June, 

1886. In October it was resold to Dr. Macomber for $2,000, 
who sold it, twenty vears later, for $20,000. It is now worth 
$70,000. ' ! M 

In 1885 200 feet on the northeast corner of Los Eobles 
Avenue and Colorado Street was bought for $6 a foot! 

Wesley Bunnell paid $2,000 for five acres — northwest cor- 
ner of Colorado Street and Marengo — in 1881, through the 
agency of T. P. Lukens, and afterwards concluded he had 
paid too much. Lukens offered to take it off his hands at 
cost, but Bunnell refused. "When the boom happened along 
Bunnell was visiting in the East. He was wired $10,000 
for his land and he refused it. The offer was raised to 
$15,000 ; he was excited, but declined again and took the next 
train home to interview the crazy, man who offered it! Then 
he found the boom had begun, and found himself bombarded 
with offers. Finally, he divided his property into lots and 
got $120,000 for it, in 1887. Parenthetically, it may be added, 
that a lot sold from this tract by Bunnell for $200 per foot 
in 1887 was bought back by him in 1890 for sixty-seven dollars 
per foot! Cause: "Busted boom. ,, It is worth $1,200 per 
foot now. 

A ten-acre tract on Lake Avenue was sold for $5,000, in 

1887, and the price was thought to be good. But the pur- 
chaser divided it into twenty lots and sold them at a clean 
profit of just $20,000 in a few months. 

H. W. Magee paid $6,000 for a five-acre corner — Marengo 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 165 

and Colorado — in 1882. There was seven hundred feet front- 
age on Colorado Street. Magee sold it for $14,000 in 1886— 
$20 per front foot ! It is worth a million now, and when the 
judge passes it nowadays he wonders what he would do with 
the money if he had got the top of the market! But there 
seemed to be little advance in values east of Marengo Avenue 
for a long time; no one dreaming that business would ever 
reach out so far as it has done — in a lifetime. Some of the 
prophets thought west on Colorado Street was the proper 
course for business to take, and when A. K. McQuilling sold 
his ranch out there to a syndicate for about $4,000 per acre 
(it had cost him about $50 per acre in 1875), a boomlet 
started in that direction. The tract was cut into business 
lots, although there was no business within two or three 
blocks, and it went like the proverbial "hot cakes" on a 
winter morning — much to the financial advantage of the new 
owners. Incidentally, a lot therein (on Green Street) was 
sold for $500 when first subdivided, again for $2,200 in 1887, 
again for $6,600 a few months later, and finally, in 1891, for 
$250! A good example of "Before and after." 

But the boomlet on the west side — so far as business was 
concerned — soon petered out. Orange Grove Avenue was 
almost the last to feel the extreme upward tendency in the 
boom days, though some property had been subdivided on 
that side at the inception of them. 

Possibly this was because the residents there were satis- 
fied with their homes and did not wish to part with them, 
thus delaying the ruthless hand of the boomer and keeping 
intact their fine groves. Yet it inevitably came along and 
these places, too, succumbed to the speculator; not all, of 
course, as some resisted with pride and dignity — the E. F. 
Hurlbut place being one of these. One of the first to go the 
way was M. Rosenbaum's fifteen acres. It was purchased 
by Frank S. Wallace and C. S. Martin, and transformed into 
the "Prospect Square Tract." Grand Avenue was opened, 
and the Bennett, Hill, Nelmes, Holmes and other places were 
on the market. South Orange Grove Avenue was widened 
and improved, and began then to attract attention for its 
exclusiveness ; and thus began the second period of progress 
on that avenue, which today, with its splendid mansions, its 
parkways, and other fine improvements, is said to be the 
finest avenue in the world — for a street of its length (one 
mile). 



166 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Outside acreage must not be overlooked. "Outside" 
meant anything outside of the watered lands, i. e., the Orange 
Grove Association or the Lake Vineyard Tract. All of that 
wide area, from Wilson Avenue to Lamanda Park (not then 
named, was dependent upon wells for water, and sold for 
$50 to $200 per acre, up to 1887, or even later. Around the 
Altadena section the same price prevailed even as late as 
1888, for the probabilities of obtaining water on much of the 
land on the mesas was not then encouraging. 

Campbell-Johnson offered 300 acres of the San Rafael 
Ranch and sold portions of it in 1886 for an average of $95 
per acre. Farther away — east of Lamanda — chaparral, cac- 
tus and sage-brush predominated in 1888, and little value was 
attached to dry lands thereabouts. The same forbidding con- 
ditions prevailed about Altadena. 

One of the earliest subdivisions was made by T. P. Lukens 
and H. F. Goodwin, the Raymond Tract on Euclid Avenue. 
It contained fifty lots, which were sold, by auction, May 14th, 
1886, and fetched over $11,000, an average of only $220 per lot. 

In the first five months of 1886 the total recorded sales 
amounted to $920,000. But in many cases the price named 
was only nominal. 

Henry G. Bennett sold his home place on South Orange 
Grove Avenue, containing twenty-seven acres, in 1886 for 
$17,000. This was subdivided and resold at once. C. T. Hop- 
kins, in 1885, subdivided part of his Olivewood Tract, fifty- 
four acres, into sixty-four lots, and held an auction which 
was only partially successful. He opened Locust and Maple 
streets and Elm Avenue through the tract. These lots brought 
only $200 to $300 each. 

By the end of 1887 the boom had reached its climax. Colo- 
rado Street was a busy thoroughfare crowded with good 
natured, smiling speculators. Real estate signs were in pro- 
fuse evidence, and well equipped real estate offices many in 
number; such as the firm of Copelin, Wilson & Co., which 
included John McDonald and Charles Copelin. Afterwards 
it was McDonald & Brooks, of which firm John McDonald 
and Clarence Bunnell are survivors, still in the game. W. T. 
Clapp, T. P. Lukens, Arnold & Mills Company, Bayard T. 
Smith and George Herrmann were also prominent. R. M. 
Furlong and A. B. Manahan, with E. C. Webster, constituted 
the Pasadena Improvement Company. W. L. Carter, J. S. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 167 

Cox and many more as well known flourished in the years of 
1887-88. 

There were many dealers who had no office other than in 
their shoes and the space in the sidewalk covered by them. 
Buyers would become sellers almost, if not immediately, for 
their capital might be limited. And many such dealers pros- 
pered, their small capital swelling with each transaction. I 
cannot pass up some of these prominent ones without some 
personal attention. There was Bayard T. Smith for instance, 
the Chesterfield of the street, debonair, well-tailored always. 
Smith had sold his Oak Knoll ranch and built him a mansion 
at Altadena in 1888. He owned a fine team of bays and had 
a coachman, too. Bayard posed as a politician, and being a 
democrat and rather lonesome, set out to organize a demo- 
cratic party in Pasadena, wherein he was ably abetted by 
the Wotkyns brothers, B. M. Furlong, George Herrmann, 
A. 0. Bristol and a few others of the faith. Herrmann was 
induced to take the perfectly hopeless nomination for county 
recorder in 1888. George was goodly to look at, a "dresser" 
after the fashion plate, and conducted himself like a modern 
Beau Brummel, almost surpassing Smith in that respect. It 
was good fun to George and it was fine for his friends, for 
George was not mean when it came to cigars, etc. 

Oh, no, George did not get elected, not by several thou- 
sand — but he ran well! Bayard Smith was a dapper little 
fellow, and had many agreeable qualities. On one occasion a 
party of six went on a fishing trip to Lake Tahoe, taking their 
tents, blankets, etc. Smith was not fond of the hardship of 
sleeping on a mere blanket, so purchased, for $30, a rubber 
mattress. As his fellow campers scorned Bayard's dainty 
ways, they would not help him inflate the mattress, but sat 
around and watched his endeavors while thus engaged. 
Finally, with the job done and his form ensconced upon its 
billowy surface, in time sleep came to Bayard. Then did one 
of his fellow campers quietly unscrew the stopper of the 
mattress ! Gradually the air escaped and the sleeper awoke 
to find himself reposing on the hard, hard ground — acquiring 
' ' bed sores. ' ' Of course, he had to arise in the stilly night and 
"pump up" the collapsed mattress once more, much to the 
delight of his fellow campers and rage of B. S. That was 
a jolly party, the remembrance of which brings many pleasant 
images to the writer, but none more grotesque or amusing 



168 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

than the appearance of Bayard Smith when thus rudely awak- 
ened at 3 A. M. 

During that feverish period quick action was necessary 
if a man wanted to buy anything. The "ground floor" or 
"first story' ' was in quick demand, and there were always 
buyers. ' A certain druggist was one evening interrupted when 
busily engaged in preparing a prescription by "Johnny" 
Mills, who rushed into the pharmacy and thrust a map under 
the druggist's nose, exclaiming, "Say, I'm going to put this 
tract on the market at 8 o 'clock tomorrow morning and I want 
to sell you the first lot now!" The druggist, being in some 
hurry, said "No," and declined to look at the map; but John 
would not be put off, and began to expatiate upon the fine 
location, etc. His persistence finally got the attention of the 
druggist. "Say," said John, "I've got to get that car." 
(The car stood on the corner, the conductor jingling the bell.) 
"Well, show me the best," said the victim, "and tell me the 
price." "This," said Mills, "is the best, the price is $750. 
Hurry up!" "I'll take it," said the druggist, "and here's 
ten dollars to clinch it" — reaching in his pocket with one hand 
while busily engaged pounding the mortar with the other. 
"Come in tomorrow and get the balance of first payment." 
Mills just marked "Sold" on the chosen lot on the map, and 
rushed for his car. The transaction did not take over five 
minutes, but the lot was resold in three days at an advance 
of $250 — and Mills was the agent who sold it ! 

John McDonald handled much property. On one occasion 
he placed a tract upon the market, previously advertising the 
sale to begin upon a certain day. The demand was so over- 
whelming that many customers could not be shown the prop- 
erty and sales concluded within the ordinary business hours. 
What did John do? Just organized a moonlight sale, taking 
two loads of expectant customers to the tract one bright 
moonlight night ! It took several hours for him and his two 
assistants to take in the deposits and make out the receipts 
for the same by the lantern's aid, while the lady in the moon 
smiled! Thus these mad speculators indulged the reigning 
passion. 

Many "boomers" pass before the mind's eye, as I recall 
those stirring days. I have spoken of Smith, of Herrmann, 
of Webster. There was Clarence Martin, whose judgment 
was considered of the soundest, yet who died practically 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



169 



"broke." Clarence bad a pleasant smile and a beart full of 
sentiment and kindness, wbich placed bim among the popular 
ones. He bad a weakness for a speedy borse and indulged 
it moderately. That is, he bought Post Boy, an equine of 
some fame as a trotter, and took great pride in inviting a 
friend out to the "pike" to show bis paces. "Joe" Outh- 
waite was a friend of Clarence's who also indulged in swift 
steeds, and who had stables at his Eosemeade Ranch. Upon 
occasion, over a hot bird, etc., banters were made as to the 
best horse, a bet resulted and a day set for the contest, many 
friends of both parties being present, with money to place. 
George Greeley was the driver of Post Boy. The horses 
were off, Martin confident, Outhwaite smiling self -approval. 

It was a farce, a sell. Poor Post Boy had not a chance and 
was absurdly distanced. Outhwaite had put up a job on his 
friend and "rung in" a rank professional, which he borrowed 
from a sporting friend and had "put it across" his friend. 
But it was considered a practical joke. 

This race took place on a track built on lands of M. D. 
Painter at North Pasadena by the Pickwick Club which was 
used for several years for outdoor sports of all kinds, but it 
was never a success financially and in time was abandoned. 

Jack Defriez must not be overlooked, as he was one of the 
high wire performers in boom clays. He, too, fancied the 
equine gratification and possessed a little gray mare — bought 
of Jerry Beefce. When Jack put on his best clothes and got 
behind the little pacer nothing looked more splendid, nothing 
else was seen on that block. 

Here are a couple of stories he tells on himself — just to 
show the festal antics of the fickle 
jade, fortune. He once had a deal for 
a large sale practically closed, all 
preliminaries were agreed upon, and 
it was to be signed up on a certain 
day. On that day, bright and punc- 
tual, came Jack to the man's house, 
and with much confidence besought 
admittance. Presently the door 
opened, a weeping woman appeared, 
and upon inquiry, Jack was informed 
that Mr. A. had fallen dead the night 
before ! As this was at the fag end of 




170 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

the boom, it was tough luck for Jack, as he failed to get an- 
other offer on that property. Here is another. He bought ten 
acres of land at Lordsburg, thinking to get the benefit of a 
little boomlet there. Well, he failed to unload in time, and kept 
the land for many, many years. One day he decided to view 
his property and went out for the purpose. He did not view it 
very closely because a bull that had been tethered on it by a 
too friendly neighbor, just naturally objected, and drove him 
off his own land ! A friend of mine who owned a home on 
Colorado Street was routed out of his sleep about 12 o'clock 
one night by a man who wanted to buy his home. My friend 
had not considered selling, and but half awake, at first refused, 
but as the price being finally raised, first $1,000, then $2,000, 
he let it go, and signed up, half awake and half dressed. A 
stranger came to town and took a room at the Carlton Hotel. 
He was prosperous looking, seemed to have money, and might 
be a buyer ; so thought a certain agent. The stranger retired, 
but was awakened very early by a noise outside his door, 
which noise was now and then repeated. Finally, getting up, 
he opened his door and found Mr. Agent patiently waiting for 
him with an invitation to " drive around town" in the morn- 
ing ! He was bound to be first on the job. 

Monrovia, Claremont and other " cities' ' sprang from the 
crucible of the boom and survived it. Some places were less 
fortunate. Who remembers Huntington? Yet that was a 
new "town," near Sierra Madre, started by Pasadena boom- 
ers who looked about for more booms to conquer. It reverted 
to the vineyard it had been. Lordsburg, also, was a Pasadena 
dream, its hotel built by Pasadena capital and its hundreds 
of lots fitting reminders of a mental aberration. Lordsburg, 
later, did put on a second ambition and delivered itself to the 
Dunkards, becoming a quiet, somnolent village, now part of 
La Yerne. Some of these boom places are the graveyards of 
hopes and tragedies of dreamers, and across their deserted 
streets the summer breezes play requiems of sweet forgetful- 
ness. But some dreamers fain would forget — and can't. 

Some Facts and Figures 

The magnitude of the boom dealings, at its climax in 1887, 
were tremendous when everything is considered. Eecords 
show that actual sales of property in that year exceeded 
$12,000,000. But as a fact they were more than twice that 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 171 

amount, as in many transactions only a nominal con- 
sideration was named in the deed or recorded contract; 
also, property changed hands and contracts were assigned 
from one to another several times before having been placed 
on the county records. A $10,000 transaction might figure 
at the nominal consideration of $1 or $10 — a customary prac- 
tice. It is therefore difficult to closely estimate the total 
value of real estate sales in that period, but it is safe to say 
that it could not have been less than $25,000,000 in the climax 
year of the boom — 1887, within the city limits of Pasadena 
and immediate vicinity. A most astounding sum indeed, when 
it is known that in 1885 the total assessed value of all land 
within the then city precincts, was only $1,000,000 ! In three 
years, from 1885 to 1888, the increase in assessed value was 
from $1,000,000 to $8,668,000. 

During this same year of 1887 the bank deposits had 
increased from $583,000 to $1,445,000, with a reported total 
business of $50,000,000. 

And Building Went On Apace 

Speculators might come and speculators might go — and 
they did — but the pioneer, at least, never lost his original 
affection for his adopted home. He might sell his place of 
abode, he might part with his acres, but that did not cause 
him to move elsewhere; instead, he bought again — perhaps 
farther out — and established new attachments. For the allur- 
ing sunshine and the ties he had formed held him with 
increasing hold. 

It might have been a happy circumstance could the build- 
ers of new homes have had their minds directed into more 
esthetic channels when selecting their house plans in those 
days. Then, happily, would fewer architectural atrocities 
have been inflicted upon us and less in evidence would have 
been the "gingerbread" excrescenses that prevailed in the 
"hurry" days. 

The untrained one — reaching suddenly an altitudinous 
position in fortune 's miracles — could not be expected to carry 
with him in his sudden flight the rules and principles of artis- 
tic culture. The bungalows and the so-called "Spanish Cali- 
fornian" house, the ghostly white plastered "Italian villa," 
or the "Colonial Eenaissance" were alike unknown to that 
early period. But nevertheless there were many mansions 



172 PASADENA— HISTOKICAL AND PERSONAL 

in goodly taste and beyond censure. Fortunately for the non- 
descript, the clambering vine soon smothered some of their 
incongruities, and the discordant indignities to good taste 
were hidden in the luxurious splendors of the flowering gar- 
lands that festooned doorways and concealed homely gables. 

The humblest cabin or "shack" had its setting of. roses, 
honeysuckles, morning glory or other friendly vine to make 
it inviting. Nature labored while men pursued the road of 
financial adventures ; and when the chase ended, disastrously 
or not, man could at least find surcease in the perfumed bowers 
and dream of the faded golden quest and its enticements. 

With the spread of the subdivision fever new streets and 
avenues were laid out in the new "additions" or tracts — not 
always according to Hoyle — until the city fathers began to 
regulate these things and make them conform to reasonable 
requirements. When the Lake Vineyard Tract was laid out 
Wilson Avenue was the eastern boundary of the Colony. 

Los Robles, El Molino and Lake avenues were not opened 
up until about 1886. Euclid Avenue was opened in 1886 — as 
was Eaymond Avenue. In this year also Kansas Street 
(later Green Street) was opened from Fair Oaks to Marengo, 
it having prior to that stopped at Fair Oaks. Vineyard, 
Grant and Center were opened in 1886, or extensions made to 
them. 

It was in the latter year that Fair Oaks Avenue was 
extended from its junction with Chestnut Street northward 
and the old part widened. Thereafter that portion of the 
old street from the junction northward became known as Lin- 
coln Avenue. North of Colorado Street only Villa, Mountain 
and Washington streets existed up to that year ; also Mountain 
Avenue was laid out in the original Orange Grove Associa- 
tion Tract and its extension eastward, from its junction with 
Orange Grove Avenue to Fair Oaks Avenue, was called North 
Orange Grove Avenue. From Fair Oaks eastward it was 
known as Illinois Street and thus it remained until changed to 
East Orange Grove Avenue. 

Even as early as 1889 a movement was afoot to build a 
boulevard between Pasadena and Los Angeles. It was to be 
100 feet wide. Dr. Orville H. Conger was one of the enthu- 
siastic workers for this project. But although the proposi- 
tion was revived from time to time, nothing came of it. No 
streets were paved until 1888, when Colorado Street was paved 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 173 

between Fair Oaks and Eaymond with a fine example of rock 
base and asphaltum surface road, which has "stood up" bet- 
ter than any other thoroughfare in the city, despite the traffic. 
Prior to that — in winter — it was an offensive "mucky way." 
In 1886-87-88 much building was indulged in. Aside of the 
many homes, business blocks of all kinds were put up, frame 
structures not then being prohibited. 

During the three years of the boom almost the entire block 
on Colorado Street between Fair Oaks and Raymond avenues 
was solidly built up, a few vacant lots only remaining by the 
end of 1888. Beyond Fair Oaks — on the west — there were 
also some buildings, the "Arcade" Block of James Smith and 
the building of Henry G. Bennett were of brick, while on the 
opposite side in this block were some frame store buildings. 
East of Raymond no substantial buildings were built prior 
to 1887, when A. Brockway built on the corner of Marengo, 
and a little later another building just next to the Southern 
Pacific Depot. Edward S. Frost also built another block 
opposite this in 1887. It was in 1888 that theoriginal electric 
lighting plant was established. This was called the Pasadena 
Electric Light and Power Company. A house and street light- 
ing system was introduced. The first contract for street 
lighting was made in 1894, when sixty-eight arc lights were 
placed. 

The Pasadena Gas and Electric Light Company was one 
of the business organizations of 1886. No system of street 
lighting had been instituted and there was a pressing demand 
for it. (Street sprinkling, too, had been begun in that year — 
for the business streets only.) The gas and light company 
referred to never actually furnished either light or gas, but 
was the predecessor of the Lowe Gas Company, it having been 
sold to Prof. T. S. C. Lowe, the inventor of many things in 
connection with gas manufacturing, and the inventor of the 
first process for making gas from kerosene. 

It was becoming apparent, by the spring of 1888, to the 
more sober minded, that the speculative fever had reached a 
dangerous stage, that there must be a reaction. Others would 
not concede this and continued in their optimistic way. But 
insidiously and mysteriously there had come a feeling that 
caused the more cautious to hold back and to beware of 
further tempting fate. 




CHAPTER XXIII 

"Busted!" 

THIS CHAPTER RECITES HOW SOME MEN WHO BELIEVED THEMSELVES TO 
BE ALMOST MILLIONAIRES, WERE SUDDENLY DISILLUSIONED, AND 
FOUND THE CASTLE IN THE AIR THEY HAD BEEN BUILDING CRUM- 
BLING ABOUT THEIR EARS. IT'S A WISE MAN WHO KNOWS WHEN HE 
HAS ENOUGH. 

WO tumultuous years had passed, years of strange 
and rapid transformation. A city — almost — had 
grown from a "sheep pasture"; many people, 
lately following simple methods of life, had 
gone money mad, and were imitating those who 
were always used to the silver spoon. They lived in fine 
houses, they adorned themselves with fine raiment, and they 
talked in figures portentous. With the obscuration of a sav- 
ing prophetic vision, they planned for today and counted 
their gains of tomorrow. The Spring of '88 came like a soft 
flutter of wings; the copious rainfall had brought forth lush 
alfilaria and wild grasses and covered the shelving mesas 
and rounding hills with a sweet green mantle. On the slopes 
of Altadena the burnished copper and gold of the poppy 
splashed the land with gorgeous color. Mountain streams 
filled the canyons and flowed merrily down to the orange 
groves and peach orchards in the Valley below, singing mel- 
odious chansons as they wended their ways to the welcom- 
ing sea. 

But to all this loveliness the boomer turned an unheeding 
ear; for his soul had been coarsened by attrition with mere 
money gathering, and he cared not for poetic inspirations 
such as these! 

Wait, said he, let me first acquire the needed gold ; let me 
lay by sufficient wherewith I may enjoy the beautiful things ; 
then I will buy me fine pictures, fine tapestries, works of art, 
and a proper receptacle to enshrine them in. And some of 
them really meant this; really, at heart, yearned for the 

174 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 175 

lovely, the refined, the esthetic things, but could not — yet — 
they thought, spare the time for them. 

There were still gudgeons to buy, and there was yet some- 
thing to sell them. They came, perhaps less plentifully. The 
fame of the boom had gone abroad in the land. It had reached 
into the remote corners of old Iowa, of Indiana, of Michigan. 
The Iowa granger, the Illinois banker, alike came to see — 
and be conquered! The hotels were filled with tourists the 
winter of '87- '88, and many of these joined the seductive 
game of speculation — "just for a flyer." The big hotels with 
their culinary and social attractions offering gustatory 
invitations and genuine comforts, drew across the continent 
many men, astute in the field of speculation who were taking 
a "day off." They might here find surcease from Wall 
Street or State Street deliriums, while the frigid months 
raged in their Eastern stamping grounds. But they grew 
restless away from old haunts and habits, and panted for 
some little game to while away the resting hours. They 
found it in the Southern California boom, and thus "took a 
hand" to keep in practice. 

So, once in a while, a real heavy weight was landed by the 
erstwhile bucolic citizen, — and was roped and tied, ere he 
was aware of what the game meant. Occasionally, a cautious 
man would stop to think. Then he would say, — "When will 
this reach the top?" Some of them were wise enough to take 
their own advice and quietly withdraw from the hazardous 
game. Others thought they would watch carefully for the 
limit to be reached — then "get from under." 

There were really some wise people, some very cautious 
ones, remaining, in 1888, and these whispered caution, and 
began to practice it. They discovered there were others, too, 
who had become convinced that things like these could not 
last. Then, it somehow, seemed as if many of them decided 
to sell — and found it a hard thing to realize! They then 
went about trying to brace up the weakening brothers. 

"Why," said they, "this thing is just beginning; this is 
going to be a great city; look at its beauties, notice the sun- 
shine, the incomparable salubrity of the climate; it cannot 
be stopped." And they pursued their cheery ways spreading 
optimism as they went — but also trying, slyly, to unload 
their holdings. If one of them had been a "heavy weight" 



176 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

in his operations, lie chirked up the little fellows ; for he was 
still an oracle whose word was worth something. It is always 
thus. And so the summer of that year of 1888 was approach- 
ing, and buying and selling was yet the order of the day. 
The fields of golden barley and wheat, the seas of alfalfa, 
were dappled by the south winds and bathed in the glories of 
the sunshine. The west winds sang their melodies in the 
canyons. The quail called in liquid music to his mate in the 
arroyo; but no hunter pressed, foot upon his refuge, or 
disturbed his family affairs; for the hunter was still busy 
with facile tongue and subdivision maps, endeavoring to 
garner a higher game. 

"Just today," sang he, "the price is ten thousand, tomor- 
row it will be more, next month it will be more still, buy 
now!" "But," says the prospective buyer, "McDonald 
offered me a better lot for ten thousand." "Now, that shows 
how little you know about it," responded the dealer, in hurt 
accents. "This is a much better lot than any Mac has for 
the price; why, I'd buy it myself if I wasn't loaded to the 
neck." "Well, why doesn't the owner keep it if it's going 
up so fast?" says the doubting one. "Shucks, why he's 
loaded too, and just wants to sell something to go into a big 
deal ' ' — confidentially. 

If a cautious man would say, "Your town is growing too 
fast, this must have a let up," the response would be, — 
"Naw, it's just a natural growth. With our climate, our soil, 
our — . ' ' By this time the other fellow might be headed down 
the street, much to the disgust of the dealer, though his merry 
optimism was not gone by any means, and off he went in 
quest of some other "prospect." Yes, everybody seemed to 
agree that it was "just a natural growth," that is, they said 
so to each other ; but sometimes, in the quiet, and away from 
the crowd, uneasiness might assert itself. Why, there were 
enough towns and enough lots staked out in the San Gabriel 
Valley to make homes for a million people! 

One fine morning a prominent speculator and aggressive 
boomer, arose from his downy couch — for he had acquired 
uxorious habits with his quickly accumulated resources. He 
had lain awake the preceding night, pondering upon affairs. 
He had taken mental stock of his finances, his many interests. 
The result of his overnight contemplation was, that it was 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 177 

about time to cask in, to let go of, at least some, of Ms hold- 
ings, and retire from the frenzied field. Anyhow, he was no 
hog ! Why not let the other fellow get a chance ? There was 
a nice little place in the foothills he had had his eye on for 
some time. This he would buy, build him a villa, and put in 
the rest of his days just spending money ! This sounded like 
pretty good sense to him now, and he ate a hearty breakfast, 
made a business of kissing his wife adios, and with a jaunty 
air, started "down town." First, with his new purpose in 
his mind, he went to Lukens' office, and to Lukens himself 
disclosed the idea. "Lukens," he said, "I want you to sell 
about a dozen lots in that 'Dry Wash' tract of mine, and 
also some of the 'Cobble Stone addition' lots." He said this 
as if it were already settled, and his airy way did not mean 
a thing except that no anxiety crossed his soul. "By the 
way, ' ' he added, ' ' if you will sell these this week, I '11 take off 
five per cent, just for cash buyers, though. Good day, Lukens, 
I'll call around in a day or two," and he departed, humming 
a gay tune. Lukens looked after him as he went his way and 
muttered, "the third this morning, what's the matter with 
them?" Out upon the street went the speculator, noting the 
busy throng and saluting friends as he proceeded. Clarence 
Martin drove by with Post Boy, his beloved trotter; Jack 
Defriez came along with his gray mare, glittering and gay in 
its gold mounted harness and side bar buggy. He said "good 
day" to Judge Magee, who looked like a clergyman in his 
long tailed coat, and he gave a cigar to Ben O'Neill, with a 
hearty salutation conjoined. 

Then he went to B. 0. Kendall's office and said to B. 0. — 
"B. 0., I think I will consider $10,000 cash — cash, mind — 
for that lot on Colorado Street near Raymond; you know it? 
I want to go into a big deal and I think I will sell it. ' ' "Very 
good, Mr. A., but would you shave the price a little if I can't 
get your price?" "Not a dollar, not a dollar, Kendall, why 
that lot will be worth twice as much in a year or so, but I've 
something big — big — I say, and need a little more cash." 
Out he went. Kendall turned to his partner and said, — i i Say, 
do you think A. is really going into another deal, or is that 
a bluff ?" "Dunno," said the other, "but I heard he was 
offering 'Dry Wash' lots at five off, wonder why?" 

In a couple of days thereafter, our friend went back to 

12 



178 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Lukens' office, "Well, Lukens, how about those lots, sell them 
yet?" "Why no," said Lukens, "I tried, but couldn't get a 
bid. Did show them to a party but he said they were too 
high." "Huh," was the rejoinder, "guess not; that price 
goes." 

Again, next day, he dropped into Kendall's office. "Well, 
B. 0., how about that Colorado Street lot, find a customer?" 
"No," said Kendall, "showed it to two or three, but all said 
they were loaded." "Why," was the response, "funny you 
couldn't sell that choice lot, finest in the block, too." For a 
week it was the same story. In fact, he met several boomers 
who tried to sell him something. He met Ed Webster, who 
was ready to buy anything that looked good, if he could 
"make the raise." He took Ed by the lapel and led him into 
a doorway: "Say, Ed," looking him in the eye, "you're just 
the man I'm looking for, you know that lot of mine on Colo- 
rado Street" — "Hold on," said friend Webster, "you're just 
the man I'm looking for, got the finest little proposition you 
ever saw, this is called the ' Arroyo Breeze Villa' tract, and 
knocks 'em all; see this map" — unrolling map — "see this, 
here's the stuff, let you in on ground floor, half interest, in 
at cost, not much cash wanted — " Thus discoursed Webster, 
eagerly, persuasively, and talking so fast that friend A. 
could not find an opening for some time. Each tried to sell 
to the other but finally gave it up and parted with mutual 
disappointment. 

It was the same at Wotkyns Bros', office, at Carter's, and 
at numerous other leading dealers, during the course of the 
week. "Say," said Walter Wotkyns, "what's the matter 
with you fellows, all seem to be trying to sell out." In fact, 
A. had already discovered that he was doing what almost 
everyone else was now trying to do, for as he proceeded 
along his way he was met on nearly every corner by some- 
one, who, knowing of his past activities, endeavored to sell 
him something. It was disappointing, it was more, it was 
getting to be alarming ! Some mysterious thing had suddenly 
happened. Everybody wanted to sell, and nobody wanted to 
buy! There were some who still retained confidence — or 
assumed it, at least. They said, — "Oh, this is nothing, only 
a temporary let up." But it was noticed that these very 
men haunted the real estate offices and made many anxious 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 179 

inquiries as to the market. A spectacular dealer went to a 
bank. To the president he said, "I want five thousand dollars 
for thirty days." He had been a regular borrower, a punc- 
tual interest payer, and, usually, met his obligations 
promptly; in fact, a "good customer." The banker looked 
a little anxious this time, a little hesitancy seized him as he 
noted the request. "Well, ah, now what do you intend to 
use it for?" said he. The borrower looked in surprise at 
the banker who had heretofore accommodated him promptly, 
"why, I just want to — er — to make a payment on the Arca- 
dian tract which comes due tomorrow; anyhow, Mr. Banker, 
isn't my credit good?" "Of course it's good," was the 
answer, "but, you see, we're not loaning any more for 
speculation — in fact, we think things are getting a leetle too 
high." "But," replied the borrower, "this is no specula- 
tion, it's a bargain, and there's good money in it." But he 
failed to get the money, and he left the bank wrothy, but 
reflective, went to another bank with the same result, 
although he offered to open "a little account" there. And 
it was but five thousand dollars he wanted! To the third 
bank he went — there were just three — and after preliminary 
pleasantries said, "Say, Mr. Banker, I want to borrow five 
thousand for thirty days, at ten per cent, how about it?" 

The banker smiled ingratiatingly, but shook his head 
dubiously: "Well now, that's too bad," said he, "we're 
sort of going a little conservatively just now. What, now, 
did you intend using it for?" "Say," said the borrower, 
getting irascible, what's the matter with you fellows any- 
how? Gee whiz, isn't my note good anymore?" 

Gently the banker soothed him, and explained, but would 
not make the loan. Dazed and worried, the speculator went 
out into the street. He met a friend. ' ' Say, wha 'd you know, 
I tried to get a little accommodation at the banks this morn- 
ing and couldn't." "Now wouldn't that sting you?" was 
the response, "7 tried the same thing yesterday, and was 
turned down, cold, told me we were speculatin' too much; 
huh, isn't it our money?" 

Then Mr. Speedyman came along. "Say, Speed, I'll let 
you in on a darned good thing this A. M. Just decided to 
sell a block of lots in Sub A of Paradise Addition, need a 
little cash, so thought I'd sell rather than borrow from bank, 



180 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

what say?" "Nothing doing," responded Speedyman, "I'm 
just hunting a customer for a few lots myself, say, what '11 
you give me for them ten lots in Block C — Painter and Ball 
Tract? You see the wife's not feelin' very fine, and I thought 
a trip to Europe about the right thing for her." Each 
looked into the other's eyes, and read therein the bluff that 
both were making. 

But on these days the streets were no less animated. 
There were as many pedestrians, and they seemed jolly 
enough — or tried to be — but in the real estate offices sober 
faces were to be met, and men pondered. A lot on Colorado 
Street was offered at auction. Tt had been held firmly at 
four hundred dollars -per foot. The best bid at the auction 
was three hundred dollars, and no competition! There was 
no sale, but those present left the spot wonderins:. Someone 
said that Ed Webster was trying to find a friend who would 
endorse a note for him. There was no rush for shelter, but 
some men disappeared, temporarily! 

And ttte Worst Was Yet to Come! 

It began, at last, to dawn upon some minds that the boom 
was over; that the end had come! And it had come with 
startling unexpectedness. No warning had been given in 
advance to save the shoestring: speculator, and he found his 
house of cards tumbling. The boom jag was over, and all 
over Southern California, within a brief time, some mal- 
evolent influence had been quietly upsetting the structure of 
two years' building. The paper fortunes, and some more 
substantial, had collapsed with amazing celerity, and the 
da^ed and siekened boomers' dream was over! 

After a time — during which the boomer took stock, and 
tried ineffectually to persuade himself that this was but a 
temporary set back — he finally realized that he held a long 
line of liabilities and a short crop of real assets. LIABIL- 
ITIES! That was the crushing word that faced him and 
brought terror to his heart. He might, per contra, fisrure. so 
many lots, worth so much apiece, and find a perfectlv attrac- 
tive balance. But the worry was that he could not sell the 
lots! 

It was some consolation to find everyone in the same boat 
— so selfish we are. Some, more courageous than the rest, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 181 

tried to instill their courage into the affrighted. "Wait," 
said these, "wait until the tourist comes again, wait until 
next winter, then we'll be able to unload. Haven't we got 
the same land; the same mountains are there, the same sun- 
shine, the same climate? Then think of our resources, think 
of the marvelous grain fields, the orange trees. Why this, 
sir, is the garden spot of the world, and the people must 
come, must, I say." 

But it was no use. Eulogies did not bring cash, and the 
banks held certain notes which must be met. I must say, 
however, that the banks behaved handsomely and saved many 
bankruptcies and heartbreaks, by their forbearance and time 
extensions. Then there was a generous mutual regard that 
prevented the pressing of obligations between the buyers and 
creditors themselves. 

True, most everyone owed someone else, hence self-pro- 
tection demanded forbearance. Strange to say, there was 
even good humor prevailing — after the first shock was over. 
"It was better to have loved and lost, rather than not to have 
loved at all," said one. So it was better to have been rich and 
lost, than never to have been rich at all. Perhaps; that 
depends upon the philosopher who went through the boom 
and experienced its finishing embarrassments. 

There was no panic. Few published bankruptcies — just 
readjustments! Often contracts were destroyed or returned 
to the makers, property redeemed to the seller — and that 
was all. It was the finish for somebody. 

The Board of Trade called a meeting and endeavored to 
assist in adjusting things. The common terms of purchase 
had been a payment of one third cash, one third in 6 months, 
and one third in one year. This meeting proposed that 
where the first payment only of one third, had been made, 
the lot should be surrendered and accepted by the seller, and 
all papers cancelled. Where two thirds had been paid, the 
seller should release the buyer from further obligation. Of 
course no Board of Trade could require such an agreement 
to be carried out, but out of a desire to see general readjust- 
ments and resumption of business, many did accept this plan 
and conformed to it. 

Very often the balance due was more than the property 
was worth, so great was the shrinkage, and the person who 



182 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

had contracted to buy, was glad to lose his payments to be 
relieved of further obligation. Of course many were not 
thus released, for there were some who had resources enough 
to make them responsible and who preferred to keep their 
obligations at whatever loss. There were pathetic cases, and 
there were, almost, tragic ones. One young man who had 
rated himself at six figures and more, later peddled peanuts 
and cigars on the local train. It seemed as if he jested with 
unkind fate, or defied it, but he was game. Another who 
deemed himself secure from the " slings and arrows of out- 
rageous fortune,' ' later drove a mule that drew the bob- 
tailed street car through the streets. "I wanted," said he, 
' ' to keep in mind what sort of a darned fool I had been. ' ' 

Still another — who had once prided himself on his good 
appearance and his lavish habiliments, fine horses, and stag 
entertainments — a few years later was in the habit of "hold- 
ing up" old time acquaintances for two bits or so, when he 
came across them in a neighboring city. Many instances of 
the melancholy results of the "busted bubble" could be men- 
tioned. It would avail nothing. Many there were who met 
their disasters cheerfully and courageously. 

A month or so made a difference in the old town. A 
deadly quiet filled the once noisy real estate offices, and the 
once smiling countenances took to cover — for a time. There 
was a scramble for adjustment, and an emigration of 
boomers. The city of twelve thousand or more, became — 
within a year — a town of five thousand less, and in two years, 
less than five thousand, all told. Colorado Street — that 
famed highway to fortune — was almost a country road; and 
grass literally grew in streets where pedestrians once mean- 
dered in busy pursuits. Outside subdivisions were neglected 
and overrun with weeds. Neglected groves became infested 
with predacious pests and some died of them — melancholy 
reminders of fortune's freaks. The blooming roses struggled 
over vacant cottage yards and lifted pathetic tendrils in 
unheeded appeal, for there were many deserted homes. 

This is no exaggeration, but a fact of vivid memory. Of 
course, the business men suffered. Stores with once gay 
fronts became vacant, and "to let" was a sign noticeable for 
its frequency. It was a lucky one who could pay his rent — 
now reduced, perforce, and maintain his business. Some 
could not. Some did — somehow. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 183 

And destiny chained some; they could not get away. 
Some would not be driven away by a little thing like a 
"busted boom" and hung on, still singing, if lugubriously, 
paeans to the town, to the climate, and to the beautiful sun- 
shine. They said, — "We have these, we'll struggle along 
and wait until fortune once again knocks at the door, as it 
must." So the optimist, the believer in the future, stood 
staunchly by the wreck and got what salvage he could. Thus 
fortune came to some who pledged their faith and waited for 
the "come back." Lucky ones, indeed! 

The banks also were hard pressed to meet demands, and 
maintain a cheerful aspect without pressing their borrowers, 
but the banker had lost his smile! The deposits shrunk 
three-fourths by the year 1889. If a man were "in a corner" 
his credit was, perhaps, extended and he was cheered 
thereby; sometimes, too, he was even "staked" to a new 
venture in business. But all in all, the banks charged off a 
good many thousands in the following years that was con- 
sidered "good paper" once. There were possibly as many 
as fourteen thousand lots within the city limits, that had been 
sold and resold in the space of two years. To the "dry 
lands" on the east, water had been piped to supply a press- 
ing demand, although the right to do it had been questioned. 
Much of this land had also been subdivided into residence 
lots. ! "" ' ~" ! T "H ' 

During the boom, the two or three blocks on Colorado 
Street constituting the chief business center, had been well 
built up. Also had Fair Oaks, north and south, from Union 
Street to Green or lower. J. H. Baker had built the Acme 
Hotel on South Fair Oaks Avenue. Alex. F. Mills had put 
up a substantial block down there in 1886. C. M. Skillen who 
had bought fifteen acres on the corner of Colorado and Los 
Eobles in 1880 was one of the believers who could not be 
scared off, and today, reaps the reward from his dozen fine 
stores on that corner. Frost, Brockway, Lockwood, Kendall. 
McDonald, Ball — these also stayed "by the works" and 
reaped their reward in ducats. It is pleasant to note the wise 
ones. In the country places where the boom had had its 
grip, there was the same devastation of ranches. Ranches 
that had been subdivided into town lots, showed tragic signs 
of abandonment and neglect. Orange groves were dying for 



184 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

need of irrigation and alfalfa fields were sere and brown. 
Erstwhile financial stand-bys sought other channels for their 
talents; some wandered to the country and sought to wrest 
wealth from neglected soils and bring fresh harvests from 
new furrows. The old plow was retrieved from the back of 
the barn and its share resharpened. So there was some balm 
in Grilead. 

Corner stakes were pulled and in their places trees were 
set out ; and a new dispensation began where neglected groves 
were cleared of predacious insects and again brought back 
to life. Thus in time, the country fields became green and the 
orchards once again responded to caring hands. 

So also in town and village, new channels of labor 
developed and ex-capitalists sought modest means of sub- 
sistence. A well known speculator who was also a preacher 
of the gospel betimes, was found engaged in carpenter work, 
another of the cloth donned overalls and was soon employed 
with paint pot and brush — house painting — and did the job 
very well at that. They had to do it for they were ' ' broke. ' ' 

"Tell us," quoth one, "what became of the pioneer, whom 
you seem to have overlooked in the struggle ?" Hah, 'tis well 
to remind us. The pioneer had sat in his bower, considering 
his orange trees as they grew. He listened, in the after- 
noons, as the sun dropped behind the foothills on the west, 
to the piping quail seeking its harborage for the night, down 
in the arroyo ; and, for a time, heeded not the turmoil of the 
speculator and the machinations of the boomer in the land. 
Perhaps he resented the invasions of these disturbers of his 
peace and the tranquil dreams that embraced his future. 
For, was it not for this very peace and security he had come ? 
But from the contagion of speculation there was no immunity 
and in time, this pioneer found his premises invaded, offers 
higher and higher came to him until, forsooth, he must listen, 
and sell at last! 

Some, after realizing handsomely, wisely felt they had 
sufficient to insure in comfort their declining days. Some 
were awake to the prospects before them and plunged with 
the rest. Altogether, the pioneer mostly did very well, and 
watched the play in safety until it was over, then again sought 
the repose of his veranda and pondered on the conditions 
that prevailed and wondered at the lust that money had 
wrought ! 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



185 



The Board of Trade was a body whose Directors were 
expected to lead everyone from the wilderness of disappoint- 
ment and despair. 

It did try to persuade people that they must be sensible 
now, and that they must turn their attention to potential 
things. The Real Estate Exchange gave up the ghost, for 
there was little for it to do. Founded in 1887, "to stimulate 
greater activity in real estate, and maintain the principles 
of honesty in dealings"; also "to protect inexperienced pur- 
chasers.' ' That is what its by-laws expressed! It had two 
hundred members at one time, and when a sale was made it 
must be reported at once to the office, so that duplicate sales 
would not collide, for, sometimes, a piece of property was 
sold by two different agents on the same day, or hour, and 
it was he who got to the telephone first that captured the 
commission. So, the Directors of the Real Estate Board set 
about trying to instill confidence into the community just as 
did the Board of Trade. These things heartened up the 
citizens, somewhat. Interest rates had been twelve per cent. 
Capital was drawn in from Eastern sources on this account, 
and it was not long before the rate fell to seven or eight, 
finally to six. Those who found themselves hopelessly 
insolvent, finally liquidated their af- 
fairs, or surrendered to their credi- 
tors quietly, and sought new occupa- 
tions ; some departed to other fields 
of usefulness. 

The streets ceased to buzz with 
speculators and their willing victims, 
and those who were compelled to re- 
main faced the formidable problem 
of looking cheerful while reading the 
reel ink entry in bank accounts. After 
that the calendar was revised and 
events dated "before, or after, the 
boom," in the common vernacular, back ^ to the sqil 

for years afterwards. wearing out m s oid ciothes 





CHAPTER XXIV 
Renaissance 

demonstrating that things were never as bad as they might have 

BEEN AND THAT GOOD MEN CANNOT BE PERMANENTLY DOWNED. 

HE corpse of the boom having been decently 
interred, the funeral largely attended, and the 
funeral meats duly eaten, it came to pass that the 
mourners turned their faces towards the moun- 
tains and valleys; saying to each other — "Lo 
these gifts were given to us for our use and for our 
protection, and we have shamelessly ignored them in our 
madness. Now therefore, let us forget the past, and turn 
our eyes forward with newer and better resolves." 

Thus was good cheer encouraged and new hopes 
engendered. There is inspiration in the smile of a man who 
has met misfortunes and can smile back. The town began to 
come out of the doldrums of 1888 and after. This was evi- 
denced by a nickering demand for dormant property, which 
encouraged the patient real estate men and owners. Sales 
were reported, now and then, new people were coming in 
with cash, and the banks showed better balances. 

These new comers seemed to realize that opportunities 
were waiting for them, better than did the fellow living here. 
Perhaps the latter was timid and had not recovered his con- 
fidence yet, for the shock had been rather dazing. Bargains 
were going to strangers. New homes of a better character 
were being built. The tide of tourist travel continued to 
grow. Of course it was gradual, but it was uninterrupted. 
No excitement, no noise over a sale, only satisfaction all 
around with happy auguries for the future. The City 
Trustees began to plan new street work, new improvements 
of every kind that had been halted. A new schoolhouse was 
projected and built — now and then — to keep pace with slowly 
increasing demands, for in this particular, the sudden 
increase in school children between '86 and '88, could not be 

186 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 187 

kept pace with. Man, being less busy seeking the Pactolean 
stream, found time to trim the neglected orchards and do a 
little cleaning up and the face of the country was better worth 
observing. 

For one thing, the hedgerows were still green ; the pepper 
trees waved their drooping plumes across the new concrete 
sidewalks, having thrived, regardless of simple man who had 
forgotten them for the while; and under their trailing 
arcades passed men and women whose eyes began to see 
things differently. By agreement among real estate agents, 
lots were cleared of their conspicuous "For Sale" signs, for 
they were unkind reminders, and provoked criticism. One 
mark of the new dawn was the widening of Colorado Street, 
to one hundred feet, east of the Santa Fe track. Clark and 
Heydenreich had started a packing plant to take care of the 
neglected oranges and lemons, and made some success of it. 
Other small industries were begun. 

Railroads were being planned to connect Los Angeles with 
Pasadena, and Captain John Cross did actually accomplish 
such a road in 1890. The sewage system was planned and a 
contract made with a so-called Pacific Sewage Company of 
Colorado. 

A toll road to Mt. Wilson was projected. Judge Eaton, 
C. S. Martin, George Greeley, and J. A. Buchanan made a 
trip up the mountain side to lay out a route, and this was the 
actual inception of the Mt. Wilson trail. The "City Plan- 
ning" Association, of today, has reason for pride in its 
accomplishments, but it was not the original article. An 
Association called "The Pasadena Gardening Company" 
was perfected in 1891 with C. T. Hopkins, J. G. Rossiter, C. 
H. Richardson, Lyman Allen, J. W. Polley, first promoters; 
and later, incorporated with P. M. Green, A. G. Throop, W. 
T. Clapp, M. E. Wood, W. U. Masters, J. A. Buchanan, C. H. 
Richardson and J. B. Corson, as Directors. Its stated object 
was "the care and cultivation of lots, orchards, and tracts of 
land, planting and care of street trees, weeds, vines, etc." 
Its purpose was also to "beautify the City of Pasadena and 
vicinity" — a pretty large contract. 

So, even in that far distant time, the civic life appealed, 
and the "City Beautiful" idea was incubated. I am afraid, 
however, that not very much actual progress was made, the 



188 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

plan outlined not being practical because not backed by laws 
to enforce its purpose, as is the case now. 

The reader will at least give credit to those promoters of 
the "City Beautiful" idea and their designs against the 
weedy lot and empty bean can. 

Showing that some efforts were attempted to move for- 
ward, let us quote from the Pasadena Star of July 24th, 1889, 
which, urging further efforts, said, — "Many movements are 
afoot in the way of public improvements, let us note some 
accomplishments for the past year. 

"I. Building the initial sewer system which cost $150,000. 

II. Purchase of Fire Apparatus costing $15,000. 

III. Completion of track laying for San Gabriel Valley 
Rapid Transit road to Los Angeles. 

IV. Extension of Altadena R. R. to Los Angeles. (Salt 
Lake System.) 

V. Extension of water system upon hitherto 'dry' 
lands and doubling the supply by development, new well, etc. 

VI. Erection of many new residences and store build- 
ings. 

VII. New street work, better sprinkling arrangements, 
and general cleaning up of neglected property. ' ' 

So it would seem that despite the "late disturbance" the 
town was altogether in desperate straits. The Board of 
Trade Directors, then as now, met now and decided that 
"something should be done" to promote progress, etc. Due 
attention must be given to the fact that the "Colony" had 
outgrown its swaddling clothes, and had become a regularly 
incorporated "City" of the sixth class, which, under Cali- 
fornia laws, meant that it was managed by a Board of 
Trustees, with a Chairman whose duties corresponded with 
those of Mayor and City Council under a more expanded 
system. 

One of the things that counted after the boom wreck had 
been cleared away, was the efforts made to improve the street 
by cleaning up, sprinkling them and in cases, paving them. 
Scarcity of water, at times, scarcity of money, always, 
retarded street sprinkling and the dust was frequently intol- 
erable. The wide awake real estate agent realized the draw- 
backs in these conditions and urged their correction. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



189 



I remember particularly the endeavors in the direction 
made by such agents as C. V. Sturdevant in the Los Kobles, 
Galena and other streets in the northeast section. Sturde- 
vant labored for two or three years to bring about better 
street conditions and saw them completed at last. 

Clifton Piatt was another just as heartily interested, and 
also labored to this end, so it is a pleasure to here recognize 
their efforts. 





CHAPTER XXV. 

Incorporation 

AMBITION GREW APACE AND MANY MEN BELIEVED THAT THERE SHOULD 
BE A LOCAL GOVERNMENT FORMED TO DEAL WITH NEW PROBLEMS AND 
WISHED TO PROCURE THE HABILIMENTS OF A CITY. THE CAUSES AND 
IDEAS THAT PROMOTED THIS AMBITION. 

I 

E HAVE traveled ahead of many of the important- 
factors in the development of the community, in 
order to complete an important chronicle, and will 
now retrace our steps a bit. 

Men and women- may live for a long time in 
amicable social partnership and not feel the need of laws or 
miss the absence of edicts. But a time comes when a civic 
ambition stirs them, and necessity forces them to organize 
into a formal and legal partnership. 

It was thus with Pasadena. Although there were some 
who declared against any necessity of it, events arose that 
compelled it. Pasadena was within the township of San 
Gabriel and the jurisdiction of its police court. I believe 
Otheman Stevens, known as the popular and able dramatic 
critic and special writer on a Los Angeles newspaper, for a 
time, administered Justice in the little court of San Gabriel. 
Little was there for him to do in a Judicial capacity which 
gave him the more time to practice with his pen. 

He also was "regular correspondent" for the Pasadena 
Union and was thus exalted in the ranks of literary endeavor ! 
But, as I said, San Gabriel administered our court of Justice. 
Pasadena wanted its own. Pasadena had no official existence 
yet, and no officials, excepting its School Trustees and a 
Deputy Constable. This latter office had once been bestowed 
upon A. 0. Bristol — against his consent — and which he at 
once declined to accept. Now, Bristol is a Sargeant of the 
" finest' ' and wears gold braid with an air. 

I. N. Mundell was a civic official as far back as 1874, 
when he modestly bore the title of road overseer. Then, in 
1879, P. G. Wooster assumed the dignity and " emoluments ' ' 

190 ■' -m-mm*. ,-- i 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 191 

of deputy sheriff, which office he filled with satisfaction to 
everyone, except the malefactor, until 1885. 

As Wooster is over six feet in length and not very wide 
of beam, when he bore down upon a recalcitrant violator of 
the peace and dignity of the state of California, that male- 
factor at once threw up his hands, well knowing there was 
no more chance in a contest of speed, than if he were pitted 
against a greyhound. 

"Tom" Banbury succeeded Wooster. Tom, also, filled 
the requirements, but resigned in a year or so, and John R. 
Slater took on the duties of the position. These were the 
"peace" officers who sustained the dignity and good behavior 
of the Colony until incorporation adjusted things. 

Some important events focused attention upon the neces- 
sity of incorporation and with it protection of Pasadena's 
interests. Principal of these, was the determined cry of the 
prohibitionist and its occasion. A saloon had been opened — 
right in the heart of business. The people were for tem- 
perance, sentiment alone having heretofore kept out the 
actual saloon, but it came at last, and flaunted itself in the 
faces of all. Another reason for incorporating was the 
increasing danger from insect pests which had attacked the 
orange groves and were quickly bringing destruction upon 
them, with no force of law to compel proper attention. So 
there were two mortal pests to conquer. Measures must be 
provided and provided soon. In January 1884, a meeting 
was called at Williams Hall to discuss incorporation, but on 
account of extremely stormy weather (it was the celebrated 
"wet" winter), but few were present and an adjournment 
was taken to February 12th. Again, a stormy night, yet a 
few braved the elements, and a preliminary organization 
was effected — the first actual steps toward incorporation. 
Dr. 0. H. Conger was chairman of the meeting.* Matthew 
Gr. Emery, secretary, H. W. Magee — who had at the first 
gathering been requested to present the matter to citizens — 
reported that there was much difference of sentiment, chiefly 
because no coherent understanding of the project yet pre- 
vailed, or a definite idea of the functions, powers, and 
purposes of the new municipality, to be. Also the question of 

* Dr. O. H. Conner must not be confused with Dr. E. L. Conger, the clergy- 
man, who had not then arrived in Pasadena. 



192 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

expense was an obstacle. Objections came chiefly from those 
holding outside lands. The outcome of this meeting was the 
appointment of the following as a commitee to further the 
cause: Stephen Townsend, B. F. Ball, James Cambell, and 
Dr. Luman Allen, well known residents and radical prohi- 
bitionists, whose paramount motive was " anti-saloon. ' ' The 
issue was on, and freely discussed in the columns of the Union, 
the local weekly. 

Eesidents of that portion of the Colony now embraced in 
South Pasadena, violently opposed the incorporation idea, 
held mass meetings denouncing it, and passed resolutions 
declaring "incorporation was not essential to the good of 
the community" * * * * or to "keep out the dram shop." On 
April 14th, 1884, another public meeting was held which was 
slimly attended. The Union suggested, editorially, "that 
unless more interest was taken in the proposition, it would 
be dropped." Reverend W. C. Mosher presided, with J. W. 
Wood as secretary. After discussion, another committee 
comprising Dr. 0. H. Conger, James Cambell, and T. E. 
Martin were appointed with instructions "to prepare a peti- 
tion and procure signatures in favor of incorporation, the 
same to be presented to the Board of Supervisors." More 
lagging; nothing, seemingly, was done to forward the pro- 
ject, and again interest died down. In fact, it seemed as if 
the main interest was centered on the liquor question, and 
because of this many would not have anything to do with it, 
for there was a wide chasm between people on the question 
even then, perhaps more intense than at any subsequent time. 
Not that a saloon was favored, but the indisposition to be 
restricted in their privileges was repugnant to many. 

"Jerry" Beebe's saloon w T as the inciting factor, and as 
Jerry did not seem to be in a hurry to haul down his flag, the 
prohibition artillery was trained on his place, and it was this 
that, in the end, brought about incorporation. 

At a public meeting in the school lot opposite the casus 
belli (Beebe's saloon) called to find means to remove it, the 
question of incorporation was urged, and it was agreed that 
this was the only solution of the saloon question, and, as com- 
mittees are always a popular outlet to public sentiment, and 
also a way of getting about all kinds of business, the chair- 
man of that meeting appointed still another of these bodies, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



193 



consisting of H. W. Magee, H. N. Bust, Jabez Banbury, S. 
Washburn, and J. W. Wood, to revive the cause of incorpora- 
tion and, if possible, instill some activity into it. But this 
committee found itself up against many obstacles and many 
objectors. The Colony was hopelessly divided, and the com- 
mittee failed to bring about any concrete sentiment. So the 
proposition dragged its weary length along all of that year 
and until the opening of 1885. On May 23rd, 1885, another 
mass meeting was called, at which time the last committee 
reported results and conditions and asked to be relieved from 
further duty. Then Dr. 0. H. Conger, J. P. Woodbury, G. 
W. Wilson, and J. Banbury, were selected to succeed the 
previous committee, and instructed to labor among the 
people. This committee, at a meeting of July 11th, at which 
J. E. Clarke presided, reported tentative metes and bounds 
of the proposed new City of Pasadena, and discussed some 
of the questions involved therein. Much debate, action of 
committee approved, and J. E. Clarke, C. B. Bipley, H. W. 
Magee, S. Townsend, and J. Banbury were selected for the 
honor of presenting a petition requesting incorporation to 
the Board of Supervisors, and to urge its favorable action. 
A formal petition was prepared, signatures obtained in suffi- 
cient number, and on 
May 13th, 1886, the pe- 
tition was granted by 
the Board. June 7th 
was fixed upon as the 

date when the voters „ MIMI ^at»^ i wii 

should pass upon the 
same. Troubles began 
to multiply. No less 
than four petitions 
were presented to the 
Supervisors protest- 
ing against incorpora- 
tion. One by B. M. 
Furlong, attorney for 
petitioners; one by 0. 
B. Daugherty, one by 
J. H. Painter, and one 
by C. C. Brown. H. W. 

13 




COLORADO ST., EAST FROM MARENGO, 1886 



194 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Magee and J. E. Clarke argued for incorporation, and Stephen 
M. White — a noted attorney of Los Angeles — remonstrated in 
behalf of residents below Columbia Street (South Pasadena, 
now). C. C. Brown urged against the Olivewood property 
being included, as it was unsettled, and only a fruit growing 
section. 

The area covered by the petition was 4% square miles, 
extending from the west bank of the Arroyo Seco, to Lake 
Avenue on the east, to Mountain Street on the north, and to 
Columbia Street on the south. Thus it eliminated that 
section now called South Pasadena and committed the error 
of dividing a happy family. The population thus embraced 
was estimated at nearly 2500. The form of charter requested 
was of the " sixth class" according to the Statutes of Cali- 
fornia. The question upon whom would fall the honor (and 
labors) of first Trustees, became involved, as they must be 
elected at the time the proposition was adopted ; for of course, 
the coming municipal baby must be properly nursed and nur- 
tured. The saloon question, as could be expected, was made 
the dominant issue in the election. It must be "dry" said 
some; we must be "liberal" said others. So candidates were 
sized up pro and con, and their pedigrees inquired into. 

CANDIDATES 

Pursuant to public call, a mass meeting was held at 
Williams hall, that popular forum, at which about two, 
hundred voters were present. The question of candidates 
was its particular object. H. W. Magee was made chairman, 
and H. J. Vail, secretary. The meeting got down to business 
pretty soon, and on motion of 0. S. Picher, five committees 
— one from each of the projected wards — were selected to 
report the names of eligibles as candidates. The committees 
retired accordingly, and, during their absence the meeting 
discussed the various questions pertaining to the proposed 
city. 

The committees, when they returned, reported in favor 
of the following candidates — five to be selected : 

For N. E. Section— C. C. Thompson; R. M. Furlong. 

For S. E. Section— J. Banbury; M. M. Parker. 

For N. W. Section — Dr. W. Ellery Channing; Edson 
Turner. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 195 

For S. W. Section— Charles Foote; Dr. Hiram A. Reid. 

At large— E. C. Webster; R. Williams. 

Several additional names were suggested from the floor, 
the choice of the committee apparently not being received 
with entire satisfaction. Then it was decided that the meet- 
ing proceed to ballot, the person receiving the highest vote 
from each section to be the choice -of the meeting, with the 
following result: Edson Turner, I. M. Hill, R. M. Furlong, 
James Clarke (nominated from floor), and R. Williams. 
Charles A. Sawtelle was nominated for City Clerk; B. F. 
Ball for City Treasurer (Ball withdrew), and I. N. Mundell, 
Marshall and Tax Collector. It will be observed that only 
three of the committees ' candidates were chosen, to wit, 
Williams, Furlong, and Turner; Hill and Clarke being 
nominated from the floor. Notwithstanding the meeting was 
large and representative, the ticket offered did not satisfy 
everyone and another caucus was called by the dissatisfied 
ones, when an opposition ticket was, in part, named, which 
differed in that H. J. Holmes was named in place of R. 
Williams, and E. C. Webster in place of I. M. Hill. This was 
called the " Citizens' ' ticket. M. M. Parker was also 
nominated on this ticket. Other tickets — or names of other 
candidates — were placed in the running. Opposition tickets 
also were named for Treasurer and Marshall. The election 
occurred June 7th, 1886, with the following result : 

For Trustee. Votes. For City Treasurer. Votes. 

Edson Turner 222 J. Banbury 140 

E. C. Webster 219 W. E. Cooley 85 



H. J. Holmes 130 

M. M. Parker 112 

James Clarke 110 



For Clerk. 

C. A. Sawtelle 220 

(No opposition.) 
For Marshall. 



R. Williams 104 I. tf. Mundell 158 

T.M.Hill 83 M. H. Weight 68 

The proposition for incorporation upon which, of coursp, 
depended the ri>ht of the elected officials to qualify, was 
carried by a vote of 179 for, and 50 against. It was thus that 
the municipal baby called PASADENA, was officially born. 
The vote was approved by the Supervisors June 14th, 1886, 
and the legal existence of the municipality began on that date. 



196 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 




SHERMAN WASHBURN 
A Foremost Citizen 



THE CITY OF PASADENA 

_, On the 23rd of June the elected 

^ officials met in the Wakeley Block, on 

East Colorado Street (No. 33), and 
were solemnly sworn in by Clerk 
*8£^. **■ Sawtelle, who himself, had previ- 

ously qualified. The first proceeding 
I m*~ ■ was to elect H. J. Holmes President 

L"*** 8 of the Board. No other official busi- 

ness was performed at that meeting, 
but discussion of the serious duties 
ahead of them engaged their atten- 
tion. No salaries attached to the of- 
fice of Trustee and it was no prim- 
rose path that lay before them. They 
knew, also, that they were, as Trus- 
tees ever have been, subjects of criti- 
cism; nevertheless, they set them- 
selves at work upon the civic prob- 
lems which were pressed upon them. They were inexperienced 
— all of them — in municipal duties which was a drawback. The 
making of a city was no trifling affair, as they soon discovered. 
During the next three months they met every day or two. 
There were no treasury funds as yet, and of course there were 
necessary expenses, therefore five hundred dollars was bor- 
rowed from the bank to lubricate the municipal machinery 
until such time as monies raised by taxes could be obtained. 
A policeman must be had, the honor falling upon George W. 
Dunmore. George simply walked around and looked fierce, 
when small boys smiled upon him. After the organization 
occurred the Board met in E. C. Webster 's office until August, 
when more suitable rooms were secured in the James Smith 
building on South Fair Oaks Avenue. When the Exchange 
Block was finished, rooms therein were secured, and occupied 
for the first time January 3rd, 1887. 

When the Central School lot was auctioned off in March, 
1886, the school building was moved to Kaymond Avenue 
(where the Vandevoort Block stands), and this building was 
leased as a City Hall. This occurred February 26th, 1887. 
A wooden jail was built on the adjoining lot. The old school- 
house was used for municipal purposes for a year or more, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 197 

but a better one was found in the Hopkins Block on the corner 
of Fair Oaks Avenue and Union iStreet, and mis was leased 
and occupied, increasing public business and larger space 
being required, stiii anotner migration was in order in 189o, 
when on February 27th, the White Block, on an opposite 
corner of same streets was occupied, and these quarters were 
maintained until the present City Hall was built in 1902. The 
*• government' 7 then again moved. It is devoutly to be hoped 
that before many years pass by, a new and better municipal 
building, a pride to our peopie, will be erected, and form part 
of that great Municipal Group, that will, it is beiieved, one 
day grace our city and give practical expression to the proud 
aims we have proclaimed for so many years. 



Thus the new City was formed, and a real official place 
upon the map, authorized to geographers. Not very lusty at 
first, but promising and expectant ! One circumstance may be 
here noted regarding the men and events of that time. While 
men differed — as they always will — even under Utopian con- 
ditions if such may be found — here, in the new town of 
Pasadena there was one sentiment upon which all were 
unanimous — the building of a city that would be beautiful and 
clean morally and materially, and composed of a people that 
might dwell together in amity and with civic patriotism. The 
Indiana Colony set the pace, and it was for their successors to 
continue it. The spirit of accord and co-operation was the 
keynote of the beginning, and it has been fairly well main- 
tained since — in most things. 

The new city fathers had much work ahead of them. 
Streets to make or improve; sanitary conditions to provide; 
fire protection to establish. Up to that time, no streets had 
been sprinkled, and the dust of summer was more than a 
nuisance. Streets had been opened willy nilly sometimes, 
little or no systematic attention being given to proper grad- 
ing. Paving must be effected on most traveled thoroughfares 
in the business section, and Colorado Street cried aloud for 
this especially after winter rains, from its odorous quagmire 
that was churned right in the heart of the "City." 

A legal adviser in the person of E. J. Huston was engaged. 
He filled the place for one month only. Then N. P. Conrey, a 



198 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

young man who hailed from a bailiwick in the Hoosier state, 
and was looking around California for an opening for his 
talents, was secured for the sum of seventy-five dollars per 
month. The drafts upon his legal acumen unquestionably 
exceeded his own upon the city treasury. But those were eco- 
nomical times and the young attorney needed the job. Attor- 
ney Conrey secured an unused corner in Wood's drug store, 
and there set up his desk, and arranged upon it a few imposing 
legal tomes. He had plenty of time, apart from his official 
duties, to prepare for the more dignified, distinguished, and 
onerous affairs that appertain to him now, as presiding judge 
of the Appellate Court of the Southern California District. 

Perhaps he may sometimes — between ponderous argu- 
ments of opposing attorneys — revert, in memory, to the hope- 
ful days when he mingled briefs with potions and pills — 
secundum art — in the village pharmacy! It was Judge Con- 
rey who prepared the first anti-liquor ordinance — the cel- 
ebrated number 45, the theme of many legal jousts in after 
years. Conrey remained as City Attorney until September 
21st, 1887, when he removed to Los Angeles to engage in a 
larger field of practice. John C. Winslow, one time assistant 
in the New York District Attorney's office, succeeded Conrey. 
Winslow, as had Conrey, gave valuable service to the City in 
its formative stage, but was compelled to resign April 24th, 
1888, on account of ill health, and died in the same year, I 
believe. Then Frank J. Polley came on deck. Accomplished 
in literary walks as he was, he found himself out of his 
element and with no affection for legal disputation. He was 
succeeded by A. E. Metcalfe, February 15th, 1890. Metcalfe 
engaged himself but temporarily, and was in turn succeeded 
by W. E. Arthur, another Hoosier lawyer out for his laurels. 
Arthur was young and brilliant, and possessed an affability 
and savoir-faire which secured him a large following of 
friends and political adherents, for Arthur was a capable 
politician and an able attorney, and placed upon record many 
ordinances in behalf of the new city which stand as effective 
models of their kind. 

The most important thing done in 1888 was the voting of 
$150,500 bonds for the purpose of purchasing lands and estab- 
lishing a sewage system and placing the first unit of that 
system ; also $32,500 for fire apparatus was voted at the same 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 199 

time. These were urgent needs and were cordially responded 
to when a vote was asked upon them. 

Eostee Or Municipal Affaiks From 1886 

1886-88, Board of Trustees— H. J. Holmes, President of the 
Board; R. M. Furlong; Edson Turner;* M. M. Parker; E. C. 
Webster. On June 15th, Holmes resigned and Gr. Boscoe 
Thomas was appointed by the Board to fill the vacancy. 
Parker was elected President of the Board. The first fire 
engine was named in honor of M. M. Parker. 

1888-90. M. M. Parker, President; Edson Turner; S. 
Townsend ; W. W. Webster ; A. Gr. Throop. Parker was suc- 
ceeded as President of the Board by A. G. Throop. Webster 
resigned September 15th, 1888, J. B. Young being his suc- 
cessor — by appointment. By reason of vacancy caused by 
death of Turner, Alexander McLean was selected to take his 
place February 9th. Young resigned December 7th, 1889, 
and Elisha Millard was appointed in his place. Townsend 
resigned, and John Allin succeeded him February 15th, 1890. 
Parker resigned, and W. W. Mills succeeded him October 
12th, 1890. Many changes indeed! But these men found it 
no easy thing to attend to the City's call and their own affairs 
as well. (James H. Cambell had been elected City Clerk at 
the end of Sawtelle's term in 1888, and continued as such until 
Herman Dyer was elected in 1892. Dyer seems to have been 
elected for life, as he can still be seen in the City Clerk's office, 
smiling, bland and affable. It seems as if Heman Dyer were 
born smiling, and had never left off. No formal smile, under- 
stand, but a friendly one always. 

Trustees — Continued. 

1890-92, T. P. Lukens, President; A. K. McQuilling; James 
Clarke; C. M. Simpson; Thomas Banbury. 

1892-94, Oscar F. Weed, President; John S. Cox; T. P. 
Lukens; A. K/ McQuilling, James Clarke. 

1894-96, T. P. Lukens, President; Sherman Washburn; H. 
M. Hamilton; 0. F. Weed. John S. Cox succeeded Lukens as 
President January 2nd, 1895, and continued as such during 
his term of office. 



* Edson Turner was killed by a runaway horse accident on January 14th, 
1889, his death being much regretted, as he was highly esteemed as a citizen and 
trustee. 



200 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

1896-98, Calvin S. Hartwell, President; S. Washburn; H. 
M. Hamilton; George D. Patten; H. G. Eeynolds. 

1898-1900, George D. Patten, President; Horace M. Dob- 
bins ; H. G. Reynolds ; Thomas C. Hoag ; Edwin Lockett. 

1900-1902, H. M. Dobbins, President; Thomas C. Hoag; 
M. Slavin; Fred C. Twombly; C. C. Reynolds. Cambell was 
re-elected Treasurer in 1900 over Rev. L. P. Crawford by a 
majority of 40, and W. S. Lacy, Marshal, over George Greeley 
by 156 majority. 





CHAPTER XXVI 

Municipal Baby Gkowing — A New Chakter 

CLOTHES TO FIT THE GROWING BODY. HAVING OUTGROWN ITS OLD HABIL- 
IMENTS, THE CITY DECIDED TO ACQUIRE NEW ONES, WHICH IT 
ACCORDINGLY DID. BUT IT HAD SOME TROUBLE DOING IT. PASA- 
DENA ELECTS ITS FIRST MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL. 

T HAD been for some time apparent that the char- 
ter nnder which the city was operated, was not 
sufficiently expansive to meet the requirements of the 
larger town which Pasadena had grown to be. The 
boom years had come and gone, during this period 
of six years, and the city of twelve thousand, which had 
dwindled to less than five thousand, had again grown to nearly 
ten thousand by 1900. The very recent "baby" had outgrown 
the swaddling clothes of infancy. Bigger problems were 
facing it, principally the water supply, which was not in- 
creasing conformably with the increasing demand. In the 
year 1900 the City assessment was $8,894,512 and the tax 
levy on each one hundred dollars was 70 cents, the taxable 
value being sixty per cent of appraisement. The expenses 
for that year were $117,140. The most noteworthy thing 
accomplished was the operation of the sewer farm, and the 
practical solution of sewage problems. Several railroad 
systems had been inaugurated. The Santa Fe had acquired 
the original San Gabriel Valley road, and the Southern Pacific 
had entered the gates of the city with a "stub" line. Some 
street car lines were also established. 

Thus, material development had ensued, and with it, 
prospects of greater import came, as a matter of course. No 
criticism can be made of the Trustees who had managed the 
Municipal ship to date. All had shown energy and intelli- 
gence, and, within their official limits, had accomplished their 
work, and fulfilled their duties satisfactorily and with public 
approval. Not a whisper of graft, or anything akin to it, 
was heard! 

201 



202 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

But a new charter was needed. Citizens began considering 
it and by 1894 concrete action was being taken. At a mass 
meeting thirty citizens were named from whom fifteen were 
to be selected at the polls. These fifteen were to be known as 
the " Freeholders Commission," its business to be the prep- 
aration of a new charter. The election resulted in the fol- 
lowing members being named — the election occurring August 
18th, 1894. C. M. Simpson; M. E. Wood, James Clarke, 
Walter Wotkyns, Milf ord Fish, C. M. Parker, John McDonald, 
A. K. McQuilling, W. R. Staats, F. S. Wallace, J. W. Vander- 
voort, Thomas Banbury, George A. Gibbs, J. H. Cambell and 
H. H. Rose. This Commission, in course of time, prepared 
a document for submission to the electors. But because of 
some objectionable features (it did not suit the prohibi- 
tionists), it was not approved at the polls when voted upon — 
February 23rd, 1895 — and the city had to plod along in the 
old rut for several years longer. Nevertheless, the old con- 
ditions hampered and in 1900 another effort was made to get 
together on the charter question. As before, the solution was 
up to the public, and as before the town meeting settled the 
preliminaries. 

The Chaktee Voted 

The result of frequent meetings and much discussion, was 
the election, on May 11th, 1900, of the following charter Com- 
mission : A. R. Metcalfe ; J. D. Graham ; Norman Bridge ; F. 
P. Boynton; B. F. Ball; F. R. Harris; Thomas Earley; John 
McDonald; Delos Arnold; M. E. Wood; R. Eason; J. D. Nash; 
F. S. Wallace ; C. M. Davis, and C. J. Willett.* A. R. Metcalfe 
was chairman of the freeholders committee and it did produce 
a charter which was acceptable to the majority of voters, for 
it was adopted by them, and approved by the Legislature in 
January following. 

The committee fairly represented all prominent elements, 
the ' ' dry ' ' and the ' ' liberal, ' ' particularly. Under the charter 
the new administration of affairs was to be in the hands of a 
Mayor and City Council composed of four members rep- 
resenting the city geographically, and one member ' l at large, ' ' 
five in all. 

* C. J. Willett, being absent from the city, did not participate in the sessions 
of the committee, nor did he sign the charter formulated by the committee whea 
it was finished. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 203 

A City Engineer, Superintendent of Streets, Building and 
Plumbing Inspector, Chief of Police, Chief of Fire Depart- 
ment, Board of Health, Board of Library Trustees, Board of 
Education, Police Judge, City Attorney were to be appointive 
positions. A City Treasurer, Tax Collector and a City Clerk 
were to be elective. The members of the Council were to 
hold four year terms (after the first body was elected and 
assigned to two and four years) and their compensation was 
to be three dollars a day while in session, the sessions re- 
stricted to 52 paid sessions annually. (This was increased to 
five dollars in 1907.) The salary of the Mayor was fixed at 
$1500 per annum. (An effort was made to increase this to 
$3000 a few years later but was voted down.) 

The charter being adopted the next steps were to select 
proper men for the several offices to be filled. The Mayor's 
office was the occasion of much discussion and the most prom- 
inently mentioned was Martin H. Weight, a resident since 
1876, an old time republican who had been prominent in his 
party's councils and withal a man with a large following. 
But he had opposition. The "long hairs" as had been termed 
the ultra prohibitionists and " church' ' voters were opposed 
to him because of his independent views regarding the liquor 
question, they fearing that he might interpret ordinance 220 
(the liquor ordinance) too liberally. So when the convention 
met there was bound to be strong opposition, and another 
candidate for a certainty. The question of Councilmen, also 
was causing considerable worry. The charter declared that 
there should be one selected from each of the four "wards," 
and one at large ; but the charter did not specifically say how 
they should be elected, whether by the entire vote of the city 
or within the wards. 

The Convention was by previously called mass meeting to 
contain 100 delegates, who were to be selected at caucuses in 
each ward and voted for at primaries in the usual way. 

The primary fight occurred Feb. 19th, 1901, and a warm 
contest was put up between the "Weight" faction, de- 
nominated the "Non Partisans." There were some allied 
with this faction also who were not committed to Weight at 
this time. The other faction was called the "Unpledged Non 
Partisans," but it was generally conceded before the primaries 
that Judge C. J. Willett would be its candidate. Willett was 



204 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

an attorney of great popularity in Masonic circles and among 
"church" people and had many friends. The primaries re- 
sulted in such a close choice of delegates that no one could 
predicate results upon it. 

The Convention met February 21st. George A. G-ibbs 
was elected Chairman over Rev. L. P. Crawford, by a 
majority which was considered as giving hope to Weight's 
friends. 

The Convention was not long coming to order and the first 
business, after adopting a platform and Resolutions, was to 
choose the candidate for Mayor. Alex. R. Metcalfe presented 
the name of Weight while Rev. L. P. Crawford offered that 
of Willett. A third candidate in the person of C. C. Reynolds 
was unexpectedly presented by H. I. Stuart and who had a 
good following as it developed. 

The first ballot stood: 

Weight— 36 Willett-41 Reynolds— 21 

The second: 

Weight— 39 Willett^6 Reynolds— 15 

There was little variation on the next four ballots. In the 
fifth, some who believed that neither of the leading candidates 
could win, proposed the name of Fred E. Twombly, a popular 
member of the Board of Trustees, but he declined to permit 
his name to be used; nevertheless, he did receive 8 votes upon 
the sixth ballot. Then in the seventh ballot several delegates 
who were opposed to Weight primarily, but would not accept 
Willett, went over to Weight and the ballot stood Weight, 53 ; 
Willett, 47; and Weight therefore stood nominated. 

For council the following received the endorsement of the 
Convention, having previously been selected by the repre- 
sentatives of their various wards in separate conclave. C. C. 
Reynolds ; Matthew Slavin; F. E. Twombly; Wm. Shibley and 
W. A. Heiss. C. C. Brown's name was presented but he re- 
fused to have it then considered. (James Cambell was also 
named as City Treasurer and Heman Dyer for City Clerk. ) 

As was anticipated, Weight's nomination did not please 
the other faction and immediately steps were taken by his 
opponents to find another candidate who would especially 
represent their views upon the liquor question. He was found 
in W. S. Lacey, who had served a term as City Marshall and 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 205 

held extreme views upon ordinance 220. A. Bush Stevens 
was chosen to run as Treasurer. 

Candidates for Council were also chosen so that a full 
ticket was named. The Council candidates were as follows: 
C. C. Brown, (who came out independently) ; A. I. Gammon; 
J. P. Chaffin; H. M. Lutz and J. P. Stoughtenburgh, all of 
them responsible and well known citizens. 

Harry Geohegan was chosen to manage the " regular" 
ticket fight while John G. Bos sit er was the manager of the 
opposition. 

It was an interesting campaign, and being the first under 
the new charter was of exceptional warmth, full of newspaper 
illumination upon the "crimes" and also the angelic qualities 
of the several candidates. 

But Weight won in the following vote : Weight, 964 ; Lacey, 
753 ; Cambell beat Stevens by a vote of 894 against 764. All 
of the "regular" candidates for Council were chosen by a vote 
of nearly 2 to 1. There was a Socialist vote for Socialist 
candidates of about 135. 

At a meeting of the Councilmen elect, lots were drawn for 
short and long terms, which resulted in Messrs. Twombley, 
Shibley and Heiss drawing the long terms (4 years) and 
Slavin and Beynolds the short terms (2 years). 

The first official meeting of the newly elected Council was 
held May 6th, at which Mayor Weight presented a list of 
names that he had chosen for the various appointive offices. 
C. C. Beynolds had been chosen presiding member. 

The appointive officers were required to be approved by 
the Council and as was anticipated, that body might fail to 
do this (friction having been engendered) as it was whispered 
on the streets that at least two of the incumbent officials — 
Bailey, City Attorney, and Buchanan, Street Superintendent, 
would not be on Mayor Weight's list. 

The suspicions were correct as the list herewith given 
shows : 

For City Attorney, George A. Gibbs in place of E. C. 
Bailey, incumbent. 

Pat Brown for Street Superintendent, in place of J. A. 
Buchanan, incumbent. 

For City Engineer, Thomas D. Allin in place of W. B. 
Clapp, incumbent. 



206 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

For Board of Health, Drs. F. F. Rowland, H. K. Macomber, 
D. B. Van Slyck and J. J. Bleeker. 

Police Commissioners, 0. F. Weed, P. P. Bonham, H. C. 
Hotaling, W. B. Loughery. 

Library Trustees, S. Washburn, J. W. Wood, Theodore 
Coleman, Dr. Charles P. Carter. 

For Auditor, George F. Kernaghan. 

For Police Judge, H. H. Klamroth. 

All of these appointments were promptly confirmed except 
those of Gibbs, Allin and Brown. No objection was made 
to Gibbs either personally or on account of ability, but the 
"inside" knew that Bailey had not been over friendly to 
Weight's candidacy before the Convention, although he had 
supported him in the end and labored for his election. Bailey 
was a brilliant young attorney with ardent friends who made 
his fight for him. Buchanan was regarded as a pet of the old 
republicans and his displacement was a severe disappointment 
to them; while Clapp also had many followers who desired 
his retention upon the ground of capacity. The fight over 
these positions raged for two months and ended in the with- 
drawal of the names of Gibbs and Brown and a compromise 
upon C. J. Willett for Attorney, and L. C. Turner as Street 
Superintendent. But the sores were hard to heal that were 
made in this contention and were in evidence long after. 



CHAPTER XXVII 



The Weight Administbation 1901-1902. 



mm 




H. WEIGHT, as is seen, 
began his administration 
with friction. By tempera- 
ment he was determined — 
his enemies said obstinate, 
his friends firm — for his rights. No 
donbt he was justified in making his 
own selections for appointments, as 
he was, in the eyes of the people, 
responsible for their acts. If he 
ignored consulting with former 
friends and partisans in choosing 
these candidates, it was his undeniable 
privilege, and doubtless because he 
wished to be free from influences of a partisan nature in his 
administration, so at least, said his friends. No one may 
accuse Weight of other than good intentions in his course, 
however undiplomatic his way of doing things. His worst 
enemies never charged him with dishonesty, but did not 
forget him when he again became a candidate ! 

The new Mayor and his Council, after their first differ- 
ences, went about the business assigned them amicably and 
earnestly. Messrs. Twombly, Slavin, and Reynolds were not 
new at the game, having already served as Trustees, while 
Willett also had served as Attorney for the former Board. 
Thus they had experience to guide them. 



Mayor WEIGHT 



Important things accomplished 



THE FIRST MAYOR AND COUNCIL UNDER THE NEW CHARTER, CLAIM CREDIT 
FOR THE FOLLOWING THINGS BEGUN AND CONCLUDED DURING THE 
TERM OF TWO YEARS. 

The acquirement of Library Park, of Central Park; of a 
City Hall building and of additional fire apparatus. These 
were the largest accomplishments and were important. 

207 



208 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

During this administration also, many improvements 
were made in the sewer farm and extensions added to it in 
its city system. To Sherman Washburn, a former Trustee, 
and to W. A. Heiss, a member of Weight's Council, much 
credit is due for these improvements. S. 0. McGrew, who 
had been appointed Superintendent of the farm, gave it in- 
telligent supervision and filled the position for a number of 
years. Altogether, the Weight administration commends it- 
self as being one of accomplishment. The principal subject 
of criticism is the City Hall building which was a disap- 
pointment in location, convenience, and architecture. It did 
not come up to expectations and was a mistake, if predicat- 
ing upon a prospering future. Yet it should be borne in 
mind that the population was less than fifteen thousand at 
that time and it seemed to the projectors of it that this build- 
ing might be fit for many years to come. The most serious 
charge was that the location was chosen by the influence of 
two members of the administration who were property 
owners in the vicinity. At the beginning of this administra- 
tion the assessed value was $8,894,512 and tax rate $1.00. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF W. H. VEDDER— 

1903-1904 

While Weight had fulfilled his obligations as Mayor to 
the best of his ability, and regardless of criticism; and also 
with a fair regard to the public he served, yet he made no 
effort to appease the criticisms of those who differed with 
him; nor did he endeavor to obtain their support when, at 
the end of his term, he was again made a candidate by his 
friends; therefore as might be expected, there was de- 
termined opposition to his reelection. As his supporters 
were ardent in his cause, so were his opponents strenuous in 
their opposition. W. H. Vedder, a retired capitalist especial- 
ly known in fraternal circles, was selected as the opposing 
candidate. His affable personality was a large capital, and 
his friends rallied about him with spirit, launching a vigorous 
campaign. Vedder was elected by a vote of 995 to 708 for 
Weight, and assumed management of the city affairs May 
1903, with the following Council: Fred E. Twombly (hold 
over), W. A. Heiss (hold over), W. B. Loughery (elected), 
William Shibley (hold over), Matthew Slavin (elected). 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



209 




Mayor VEDDER 



Vedder continued Willett as City At- 
torney and Robert H. McDonald as 
his assistant. C. C. Brown was ap- 
pointed Superintendent of Streets, 
and J. A. Buchanan to the newly cre- 
ated office of Plumbing Inspector. 
W. W. Freeman was appointed Chief 
of Police. 

At the beginning of the Vedder 
administration the total bonded in- 
debtedness was $318,350.00; the as- 
sessed value $11,158,450, and the tax 
levy of $1.50 for the City. 

During Vedder 's term of two 
years, $1,426,362.00 in building im- 
provements was expended through- 
out the city in residences and busi- 
ness blocks. No new bond issues were voted during this time. 
Total disbursement for two years, $311,971.25. E. P. Hopkins 
had been appointed Auditor ; R. P. Congden, Police Judge ; F. 
F. Rowland, Health Officer. 

The one great accomplishment of the Vedder administra- 
tion was the bringing about an approval at the polls, of the 
proposition to purchase the various water systems for the 
city for the purpose of forming a Municipal Water plant, 
which could develop the possibilities of water supply to its 
highest possibilities and distribute it in the most efficient and 
economical manner. It was an old question and Vedder 
brought it to a favorable issue only to be nullified by his 
successor. 

The amount required for this purchase was $1,000,000, 
which included the purchase of a certain tract of land in the 
Valley called the "Narrows," intended for water develop- 
ment, for $25,000; and also the sum of $198,750 for " better- 
ments." The election was held March 23rd, 1905, and all 
propositions carried. 

In this period also, North Pasadena — so called — was an- 
nexed by a vote of the citizens and thus over two square miles 
of territory and 2500 population added to the city, a mutual 
benefit to all concerned. 

Vedder 's administration was marked by a number of 



14 



210 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

other important transactions. First, the completion of the 
Library and Central Parks which having been voted under 
Weight's tenure were now put into shape and beautified for 
their intended purpose. Also, an addition to the City Sewer 
Farm of 160 acres for $25,000, was successfully brought 
about, the much needed area being secured at a very low 
price. The right of way owned by Horace M. Dobbins as a 
cycleway, which traversed Central Park from end to end, 
was an eyesore to everyone and a blot upon the beauty of the 
park. Dobbins was induced to surrender this right of way 
in lieu of which he obtained a right to build to Grlendale 
Street. 

THE WILLIAM WATERHOUSE ADMINISTRATION— 

1904-06 

At the expiration of Vedder's term 
of office his friends strongly urged him 
to again become a candidate. He had 
become well known and popular with his 
following and the citizens generally. 

But he had had enough of official dig- 
nities and honors ; the petty annoyances 
attached were not alluring to him, so he 
firmly declined to permit his name to be 
again used. Better things indeed were 
in store, for upon his retirement from 
office, he was tendered the presidency of 
the First National Bank which position 
he accepted and filled for several years, 
then resigning to accept the less arduous duties of Chairman 
of the Board of Directors of the same institution. (See 
Chapter on Banks.) The Vedder following sought, there- 
fore, another leader and finally decided upon Matthew Slavin, 
a member of the Council, a successful contracting builder, 
and a man with many friends, especially it was thought, 
among the working men. The Weight following, still strong, 
and still in a combative humor, picked out William Water- 
house as the proper man to meet Slavin. Waterhouse was 
a retired capitalist known principally in church circles. 

It was a vigorous campaign, and won by Waterhouse. 
With him he had for his Council : C. J. Crandall, E. R. Braley, 




PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 211 

J. F. Barnes, Fayette Dyer, W. T. Eoot, Sir., W. B. Lougliery 
(president), Thomas J. Ashby. 

Among the appointments of Mayor Waterhouse was a 
Board of Park and Fire Commissioners who were: Robert 
J. Burdette, W. H. "Windham, W. C. Crowell and W. D. 
Medill. George F. Kernaghan was appointed City Anditor; 
John Beyer, Superintendent of Streets to succeed C. C. 
Brown; and John A. Pinkham, Chief of Police, succeeding W. 
W. Freeman. 

Heman Dyer was elected over P. H. Quinn, socialist, for 
City Clerk. 

Spencer S. Mnnson was elected Treasurer and Tax Col- 
lector over George H. Frost by a small margin at this elec- 
tion and has remained a popular and efficient incumbent ever 
since. Waterhouse deposed C. J. Willett as City Attorney, 
appointing J. C. Fitzgerald, but continued McDonald as his 
assistant. John Perry Wood, just then breaking into legal 
practice in Pasadena was appointed Police Judge. 

The Waterhouse regime was notable for two things. First, 
the successful contest to secure a municipal lighting system, 
and the invalidation of the vote to purchase the water sys- 
tem. Complaints were being made that the Edison Company 
was not living up to specifications in the- quantity and quality 
of the light furnished. The first result of this was holding 
up of warrants for contract payments by the auditor under 
direction of the mayor and city attorney, and refusal to make 
these payments. The controversy finally ended in the courts. 

But the important outcome of this regime was a -proposi- 
tion to approve by vote #125.000 ir bonds, to establish the 
first unit of a Municipal Lighting Plant, which was favor- 
pblv vo+ed af+^r a sham contest, bv the small majority 
of 14. The inadequacy of the amount was urged, but its pro- 
ponents claimed it was sufficient as per an " ex-pert V opin- 
ion. Afterwards, it was discovered that the so-called 
" expert' ' was not a very reliable one, for the insufficiency 
of the amount was discovered before work upon the plant 
had been begun. This campaign was an exciting one, and 
called for much public discussion, during which, many hard 
words wprp e^ohnno-prl }ynf no hloorl shod! The Edison Com- 
pany was in palpable error in not making an earnest en- 
deavor to meet the disgruntled ones in a conciliatory mood, 



212 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

which might have eased the difficulty and continued its 
monopoly unopposed — on a fair basis — for many years. A 
diplomat at the helm was needed. (Further particulars in 
Chapter on "Municipal Light.") 

The beginning of the Municipal Lighting Plant was the 
triumph of the Waterhouse administration. The "strong 
man" in his term was City Attorney Fitzgerald, whose 
ability was devoted to the Mayor's projects. He was con- 
ceded to be able and astute and "delivered the goods" as is 
said in street parlance. 

It developed soon after Waterhouse became settled in the 
mayoralty chair, that his known opposition to the acquisition 
of the various water systems would be made manifest. The 
suspicion grew into a certainty when it became known that 
he had gone to New York to submit to Dillon & Hubbard, 
— eminent bond attorneys of that city — a statement regard- 
ing the proceedings connected with the voting of these water 
bonds during the Vedder term. It was claimed by Attorney 
Fitzgerald that there were some informalities which rendered 
that election illegal, and consequently the bonds would be 
invalid if issued. Dillon and Hubbard rendered an opinion 
corresponding with City Attorney Fitzgerald's brief. The 
council, in accordance with this opinion therefore, met and 
rescinded all proceedings. The fat was in the fire! The 
town was thrown into two contending camps and the water 
question was back to where it had been. This was a sore 
blow to the advocates of a municipal water system, and gave 
the enemies of Waterhouse a cudgel which they lustily used 
afterwards. 

Doubtless Mayor Waterhouse was conscientious, those 
who knew him best could not believe otherwise. But he was 
unfortunate in that he created enmities Avhere he could have 
had approval by more tactful handling. The result was that 
many of his staunchest supporters in his first campaign de- 
serted him when he became a candidate for reelection in the 
spring of 1907. Thomas Earley was the candidate against 
him and won. 

THOMAS EARLEY, MAYOR— 1906-10 

Thomas Earley won the election over Waterhouse by a 
majority of 403 in a total vote of 3097. His campaign was 
made upon the water question, almost solely, and upon this 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



213 




Mayor EARLEY 



issue lie spoke at many meetings. 
Aside of this issue his personal fol- 
lowing was large because of the con- 
fidence in which he was held in the 
community. 

Immediately after Earley 's elec- 
tion he proceeded to bring the water 
question before the voters. Leading 
to this was a reappraisement of the 
various properties and a vigorous 
campaign in its behalf. But the bit- 
terness of past contests remained to 
cloud the real issue, and it was de- 
feated by a majority of nearly 1000 
in a total vote of 3563 at an election 
held September 24th, 1908. At this 
time also, a proposition to furnish 
$50,000 for improvements upon Tournament Park was de- 
feated. $24,000 for a Garbage Plant was successfully carried. 

The Council body serving with Earley in this term were 
H. C. Hotaling, presiding officer who was elected over Victor 
Marsh; J. D. Mersereau; H. G. Cattell; T. H. Webster; John 
F. Barnes ; W. T. Root, Sr. 

George F. Kernaghan had resigned and E. D. Kellogg 
was appointed to succeed him. John Perry Wood was named 
City Attorney with Paul S. Honberger as his assistant and 
H. H. Favour was made Chief of Police. Dr. A. D. S. McCoy 
was appointed Police Surgeon — a new office. 

At the expiration of Earley's first term he declared his 
desire to give up public life on account of declining health. 
Judge H. W. Magee was agreed upon by a caucus of citizens 
composed of Earley's friends, and the nomination tendered 
him, but upon consideration, he declined to make the race, 
whereupon Earley was again urged to make the fight, and 
finally agreed to do so. 

The backers of Waterhouse yet smarted from their earlier 
defeat and desiring to retrieve their downfall, put him into the 
running once more; so the old fight w T as made over again. 
Earley won, for his popularity had grown during his ad- 
ministration. 

Again, he set himself to bring about the accomplishment 
of his chief ambition — the Municipal Water System. Again 



214 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

that question was brought to an issue January 26th, 1910, 
and once again it went down to defeat, a noticeably small 
vote being registered at this election. 

Two accomplishments are conspicuous during Earley 's 
second term; one, it is true, not a part of the City's affairs, 
but nevertheless, important to them. I refer to the question 
of bonding the County in the sum of $3,500,000 for the pur- 
pose of building a system of high class county boulevards; 
300 miles of them. Earley devoted much work to this cam- 
paign. It was successful, and when the Supervisors ap- 
pointed a Commission to take charge of the work his name 
was in the list. Another enterprise begun in Earley's admin- 
istration was the Colorado Street Bridge, the pride and the 
real monumental beauty of Pasadena. While Earley cannot 
be credited with conceiving this project, nor, at first, even 
favoring it as it now stands, yet when it was undertaken he 
used all of his influence towards the success of the bonds 
when it became a voting issue. 

There was something of an issue upon the vote for Coun- 
cilmen that year, C. M. Jacques and John S. Cox contending 
for places, but the successful ones were J. F. Barnes and W. 
K. Fogg, H. G. Cattell, William Korstian, W. T. Root, Sr., 
H. C. Hotaling and J. D. Mersereau. (Cattell later resigned to 
become a candidate for the Assembly and H. G. Chaffee suc- 
ceeded him.) 

At this time to total assessment for the city was $30,949,- 
800 and the expenditures $673,350.52, which included interest 
on bonds. The bonded indebtedness was then $676,325.00. 

WILLIAM THUM— 1911-12 

As has been said in another chapter, William Thum be- 
came prominent in the water campaign of 1910-11, and was 
chosen as a mayoralty candidate because it was believed that 
he could unite the dissenting factions and in this way achieve 
the acquirement of the water system for the City. Thum was 
known to be a student of economics with some utopian ideas, 
but had the confidence of his friends. Some who distrusted 
the faction behind him brought out R. L. Metcalf, also a 
reputable gentleman who was living a retired life. Thum 
was elected by a majority of 541 in a total vote of 3989. 

Mayor Thum's Council was Barnes, Root, Fogg, Korstian 
with H. G-. Chaffee, C. W. Rhodes and W. T. Davies, new mem- 





PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 215 

bers. Davies resigned soon and P. M. 
Shutt succeeded him. Wm. Easter- 
brook was a candidate for Council and 
received over 800 votes, but was not 
quite successful. Easterbrook had 
been active in public affairs, especially 
in the northwest section and claimed 
recognition for his vicinity. 

Mayor Thum applied himself in- 
dustriously to civic problems, as was 
his nature as a student. One of the 
first innovations he made was to em- 
ploy Eobert S. Allen as his "effi- 
ciency" clerk — at his own expense — in 
an endeavor to systematize the vari- 
ous departments and introduce more 
economy, if posible. But " Bob ' ' didn 't Mayor THUM 

remain long and was succeeded by I. N. Smith. The results of 
this departure have been of value and newer systems were 
adopted, satisfactory to the Mayor who footed the bill. The 
water project was carried — the great accomplishment of 
Thum's incumbency and the demonstration of his good faith 
to those who supported him. W. J. Carr was appointed city 
attorney to succeed J. Perry Wood, elected superior judge. 
W. H. Woods succeeded Favour as Chief of Police. Few other 
changes occurred in the City Hall. 

When Thum retired at the end of his term, he claimed the 
following accomplishments as the most signal results of his 
administration. 

Acquisition of Municipal Water. 

Colorado Street Bridge — completion of it. 

Columbia Street Bridge. Ditto. 

Broadway Storm Drain. Ditto. 

Beginning of Eastside Storm Drain. 

Orange Grove Avenue improvements — proceedings com- 
menced under preceding administration. 

Building of Imhoff tank at Sewer Farm. 

Garbage collection. 

Purchase of City Hall Annex. 

A very satisfactory record of accomplishment and re- 
dounding to the credit of a good mayor. 

Mayor Earley had inaugurated several important im- 



216 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



provements that lie could not carry out before his term ex- 
pired, but which were completed by Mayor Thum. Notable 
among these was the paving and beautifying Orange Grove 
Avenue, widening the parkings, laying a conduit for all wires, 
and placing fine bronze street lamps. These improvements 
were paid for by property owners on that thoroughfare. 




CHAPTER XXVIII 

A Commission Fokm of Goveknment 

HE people had now little reasonable complaint to 
make regarding the administration, but the much 
exalted Commission form of Government was 
being discussed in newspapers and magazines ; and 
wherever there are people of leisure there are 
philosophers who ponder over every problem that life has to 
offer. Furthermore, they are willing to experiment with any 
plan or project that promises something better — or just dif- 
ferent. Is not this so because Americans are, as yet, unwill- 
ing to accept anything as permanently established, and 
everything as a mere experiment toward something else? 
We will name this "progress," for want of a more fitting 
term — also to accommodate these very philosophers! Well, 
the spirit of change had come to be desired in Pasadena and 
bodies of men as well as individuals cried for the "Des 
Moines plan" or the "Galveston plan." It looked well in 
print and in some cities it was a success. Elementarily, it 
consisted of a body of Commissioners whose labors differ- 
entiated from those pertaining to councilmen, in that each 
commissioner was obligated to become responsible for his 
especial branch of civic duties, and to administer them, or 
see that they were administered, satisfactorily. 

There was to be a Chairman — a nominal head only — with 
no executive powers. It was urged that the plan lacked in 
that each commissioner, being responsible only for his own 
particular division of affairs, might possibly endeavor to 
make personal and political capital out of his opportunities 
and disregard his associates ' endeavors. In fact, might even 
place obstacles in the way of his confreres ' success, if per- 
chance any rivalry arose. These were theoretical objections 
it is true, and might never be practiced here. Yet who may 
fortell the future in political transformations or civic evolu- 
tions? 

Whatever the objections, the movement must be tried — 
said its proponents. No matter what progress the city was 
making, if the new plan was better, then it must be ours ! 

217 



218 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

There was not, and never had been any political scandal 
attached to Pasadena. Even the politicians had been pat- 
riotic ; had been upright and honest. But they might become 
corrupt; they might sometime break into the treasury and 
steal! Let us guard against it — said these men. So the pro- 
ponents of the Commission scheme gave plausible reasons 
and many illustrations. The proposition grew in favor, meet- 
ings were held and amendments to the charter prepared by 
ex-City Attorney Carr, at the behest of those interested, and 
on May 24th, 1912, the amended charter was submitted to the 
voters and adopted by a vote of 5647 to 2286. At this time 
also the two celebrated liquor propositions — No. 10 and 11 — 
also a referendum proposition were voted upon. The direct 
primary was adopted by a vote of 6532 for and 981 against. 

Under the amendment providing for a change in the plan 
of government, a commission of five was provided for, at sala- 
ries of $3,000 each per annum, each member — after the first 
two years, to be elected for a term of four years. Any eligible 
voter could become a candidate if 25 voters so petitioned. 
Any number of candidates who thus qualified must have their 
names submitted at a primary, at which the two candidates 
for each vacancy receiving the highest vote would be nom- 
inated. Thus there would be two candidates for each place 
to be filled. Then at the regular election the candidate receiv- 
ing the highest vote would be elected. No less than 38 con- 
testants appeared and submitted themselves at the first 
primary from which the following were nominated: T. D. 
Allin, C. E. Burger, T. P. Lukens, H. Geohegan, A. L. Hamil- 
ton, W. B. Loughery, Frank May, A. L. Metcalf, M. H. Salis- 
bury, C. S. Thompson, H. Newell. 

At the election in April the following were chosen: A. L. 
Hamilton, W. B. Loughery, E. L. Metcalf, T. D. Allin and M. 
H. Salisbury. 

While no specific position had been assigned for either of 
these candidates the voter had, as a rule, contemplated them 
in connection with certain capacities for which their previous 
experience had fitted them. When an organization of the 
board followed E. L. Metcalf was elected as Chairman and 
Commissioner of Public Affairs ; A. L. Hamilton, Vice Chair- 
man and Commissioner of the Treasury; M. H. Salisbury, 
Commissioner of Public Utilities ; T. D. Allin, Commissioner 
of Public Works, and W. B. Loughery, Commissioner of 
Public Safety. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 219 

The following appointments were made: Heman Dyer, 
City Clerk; J. W. Prinz, Auditor; Spencer M. Munson, 
Treasurer; John Mnnger, Corporation Counsel with James 
H. Howard as his assistant. Other appointments were made 
as follows: Judge of Police Court, Robert W. McDonald; 
Superintendent of Parks, Jacob Albrecht ; Health Officer, Dr. 
Stanley P. Black; Food and Sanitary Inspector, C. F. Hud- 
dleston; Chief of Police, W. S. Mclntyre; City Engineer, 
Lewis E. Smith; Superintendent of Streets, John Beyer; 
Chief of Fire Department, A. M. Clifford; General Manager 
of Lighting Department, C. W. Koiner; Anna McOrew, Sec- 
retary of the Board. Miss Bessie Chamberlain was continued 
as stenographer of the board and assistant to the city clerk. 

When the new Commission began its work the total 
assessed value of the city was $51,935,755 (fiscal year 1912- 
13). The total bonded indebtedness, $2,023,150.00. 

It might be said here that the Commissioners adopted, or 
rather practically maintained a Civil Service condition 
whereby appointees are continued in positions indefinitely, de- 
pendent upon qualifications entirely. Therefore all the ap- 
pointees named have continued in office, excepting that E. V. 
Orbison succeeded Smith as City Engineer. 

At once the Commissioners assumed charge of their sev- 
eral departments and soon there was evidence of some 
change. Salisbury took charge of the water system and also 
became head of the lighting department. The Board engaged 
an expert who established a new financial system and this 
was given into the hands of Commissioner Hamilton. The 
Commissioners had drawn lots for terms, the two year 
terms falling to Metcalf and Salisbury. At the expiration 
of their terms both again became candidates, but Metcalf was 
beaten by W. F. Creller, who, by readjustment, became Com- 
missioner of Parks and Public Buildings, and Hamilton be- 
came Chairman of the Board and was given the title of Com- 
missioner of Finance. 

Again, at the end of the four year term, Hamilton was 
reelected as was Harley Newell — long time County Constable, 
and well known in politics and affairs for many years, over 
Loughery. Loughery, who had been elected by a large major- 
ity, had somehow antagonized the proponents of the Municipal 
Lighting Plant, and suffered thereby. 

Despite the interminable difficulties that beset the Com- 



220 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

missioners, and the endless appeals that come to them npon 
all kinds of subjects, it may be said, advisedly, that they have 
"made good" in the sense of personally living up to the ex- 
pectations of the majority of the people. True, those who 
anticipated a millennium have been disappointed, as they ever 
will be. Hypercritical persons who are forever on the look- 
out for things to criticize have found them, of course. 
Owners of nomadic felines have objected to a tax on their 
household pets; the uproarous chanticleer was relegated to 
a proper distance from Father's sleeping porch; and the 
odorous billy goat driven from too intimate community with 
sensitive olfactories — all these intended for the common good, 
but finding objectors. These are trifling things. The serious 
objectors to the Commission plan found, they fondly believed, 
in the City Manager plan a surcease to all civic ills. This, 
said they, was the panacea that they needed to perfect their 
ideals in municipal affairs. Therefore, in 1915, a movement 
was begun, or rather grew out of the Taxpayers League — a 
body primarily organized to obtain relief from inequitable 
taxes — and which had finally split up, in its endeavors to "do 
politics." 

The Manager plan had been tried as had the Commission 
plan, and it too, had its modicum of success, therefore why 
not try it here? An organized campaign was begun and car- 
ried consistently forward. The Commissioners called an 
election on the question in 1916, but the proposition was 
beaten by about 600 votes. It has been alleged that it would 
have carried if certain unpopular persons had not been too 
intimately identified with it. On this account, many who 
really favored the plan voted against it, believing these peo- 
ple would be detrimental factors in its best operation if it 
prevailed. 

The City Manager form of government has many pro- 
ponents who are eager to graft it upon our city for at least 
a trial. A movement in this direction was again undertaken 
early in 1917 under the guise of "A new charter wanted." 
No one, if duly pressed could give any specific reason why 
a new charter was needed, unless belonging to one of two 
factions, the one seeking the Manager form of government, 
the other (the prohibitionist) hoping to bring to another issue 
and embrace in a charter a strictly "bone dry" provision. 

It would seem that the proponents of both of these ideas 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 221 

got busy and induced the Commissioners to call an election 
for a body to plan another charter, the result of which was 
the election of a Freeholders Commission as follows: W. C. 
Crowell; H. G. Cattell; A. L. Rowland, H. G. Chaffee; I. J. 
Neynolds; Jennie L. Giddings; S. W. Odell; M. W. Atwood; 
Charles M. Campbell; E. F. Hahn; M. E. Wood; P. H. Quinn; 
E. R. Braley; J. M. Harvey and John Munger. 

The freeholders met soon after their election and organ- 
ized with H. G. Cattell as Chairman and John Munger Secre- 
tary and proceeded to deliberate. The result was that a new 
charter was prepared containing provisions for the continu- 
ation of the Commission plan of government and including a 
"bone dry" provision. 

While the majority of the freeholders favored these pro- 
visions, a majority also favored alternatives to both of them. 
One urged by P. H. Quinn unsuccessfully, to permit the voter 
to vote upon a City Manager as his preference, and another 
upon a less restrictive provision covering the liquor section. 
The voter will be called upon to indicate his choice in No- 
vember, 1918. From present indications two factions will 
oppose the proposed charter; those who favor a Manager 
form of government because its adoption would for a long 
time preclude any chance for them ; and those who believe in 
some liberality in the liquor question and believe the charter 
now proposed too drastic in its requirements. 




CHAPTER XXIX 

Whiskey vs. Wateb — The Anti-Saloon Movement 

wherein is related the veritable history of the joyous cup in 
the city beautiful, and somewhat of the sightless porcine 

THAT HARBORED IT ; WITH MATTERS PERTAINING THERETO. 

5HHE historian who undertakes a fair chronicle of the 
various phases of the liquor question as it has been 
agitated, discussed and fought out in Pasadena, 
attempts a difficult task indeed. It is a subject 
that has ever been loaded with high explosives and 
judged with those extremes of passion that enter into ques- 
tions so vital as does the question of — to drink or not to drink ! 
It was more than a mere sentiment that governed the first set- 
tlers of Pasadena when they declared themselves against the 
saloon "blind pigs," bootleggers, and intemperance general- 
ly. In some cases a clause was inserted in the deed of prop- 
erty conveyance, making it a forfeiture of the land con- 
veyed, if at any time intoxicating liquors be sold on said 
property; and while this condition has never been exacted, 
it is possible that some property in the city has yet this lien 
upon its title, though unknown to the owners. Mayhap too 
some such has long ago been forfeited under it! The first 
fraternal organization in the colony was the Good Templars, 
and its principles were kept before the public with persistent 
diligence. Doubtless, there was a fair amount of " booze" 
consumed by some of the early boys, who looked not upon a 
glass of beer — or a bottle of the same, as an infringement 
upon divine law or contrary to human prerogative; but 
public sentiment made this a very reprehensible act and 
subject to social ostracism. No place was open for the sale 
of it until "Jerry" Beebe defied sentiment and expressed 
opinion — divided, of course — and actually did open, in the 
most public place, a saloon. "Jerry" Beebe was a young 
man who had lived in the Colony for some time, respected 
and popular. He now chose to sacrifice his good repute when 
he opened the first and only "public" saloon (I say "public" 
advisedly) at 49 East Colorado Street, which property he 

222 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



223 



owned — a two story frame building then. This happened in 
1884. Connected with the saloon was a billiard room ; he had 
laid in a stock of liquors etc., as an additional source of 
revenue to the business proper. 

Of course the opening of a real saloon in the Colony, 
brought about much excited discussion; and many expres- 
sions were made against its owner. "Jerry" was really a 
pretty nice young man, who believed there were enough peo- 
ple who approved of his effort to support him against the 
hostile element. This hostility culminated in a public meet- 
ing, held on the school grounds — directly opposite the saloon 
■ — on November 10th, 1884. B. F. Ball was made chairman 
of the meeting and C. B. Eipley secretary. Many people 
were there ; some through curiosity, most through a sympathy 
with its purpose. Speeches were made by P. M. Green ; C. C. 
Thompson; Eev. S. S. Fisk; Eev. A. W. Bunker and others, 
all denouncing the saloon and its proprietor. The conclusion 
reached was the adoption of Besolutions denouncing the 
opening of the saloon as "an insult" and an "infringement 
upon justice and decency," also a few other equally con- 
demnatory phrases not calculated to soften the heart of Jerry 
Beebe. A committee of three gentlemen and three ladies was 
selected to tender these redhot resolutions to Beebe at once, 
and then repair back to the waiting crowd to "report prog- 
ress." "Jer- 
ry "had raised 
an American 
flag over his 
door, and 
watched the 
proceedings 
therefrom. 
When the res- 
. olutions were 
presented to 
him he read 
them, smiled 
and handled 
them back 
with the an- 
nouncement the first rose op SUMMER _ GOLD of ophir 

that he WaS Estimated 200,000 Blossoms 




224 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

operating his saloon under the laws of the state, had a license 
from the United States, and proposed to continue doing so, in 
a lawful way, as long as he chose." "But," said he "to show 
you that I am a good fellow, I will sell you my saloon and 
building also, for $7,000.00. Of course the committee wasn't 
buying saloons, said so in emphatic terms, and departed to re- 
port results to the waiting people. This report was made 
and the crowd dispersed for further consideration of the 
obstinate Jerry. That ended the programme for that day. 
This result, however, stimulated the meeting to take steps to 
incorporate the Colony, and it was then and there that the 
impetus was given to incorporation which carried that propo- 
sition to a successful conclusion. 

The next step in the liquor question was the organization 
of the Mutual Protective Association, which formulated an 
agreement that was, in effect, a boycott on the business of 
those who did not cooperate with the Protective Association, 
and assist it in enforcing the anti-liquor sentiment. A 
crusade was begun on this basis, which occasioned much ill 
feeling and contention. As a matter of fact, there was little 
sentiment in favor of saloons in Pasadena then or afterwards, 
but the methods pursued by the "antis" inflamed the public 
and antagonized many who might, with more diplomatic con- 
duct, have cooperated against the sale of liquor, and the "boy- 
cott" was the finishing touch with conservative men, who de- 
clared for fairness in everything. The Women's Christian 
Temperance Union cooperated with the Association, and the 
"boycott" agreement was offered to everyone for signatures, 
many signing out of fear of the consequences of refusal. 

Dr. Hiram Eeid was to the fore in this movement, and 
became the center of the tempest on account of his activity 
and zeal, not at all times judiciously exercised. The chief 
actors in this historic movement were some of the clergymen ; 
especially Dr. P. F. Bresee, F. S. Wallace, A. F. M. Strong, 
James Cambell, H. N. Farey and Stephen Townsend. Sev- 
eral others of less prominence also joined actively in the 
movement. So far as Beebe was concerned the movement 
was successful, as he, getting tired of the continued attacks, 
sold out his business to one E. I. Campbell, who, less scru- 
pulous than Beebe, loudly defied the attacks upon his business 
and declared his purpose to "stay with it" in spite of every- 
one or anything. At a public meeting, a committee was ap- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 225 

pointed to ascertain whether any legal precedent established 
a way whereby the saloon could be suppressed, but it was 
found that there was no legal way out of the strife. The 
Star, edited then by H. J. Vail, was constantly denouncing 
Reid for his methods and Reid replied in kind; so that a 
merry war was carried on in the newspapers, which would 
make lively reading now, but would not serve any purpose to 
rehash. 

In 1886 the "Colony" of Pasadena had become the new 
boom "City" of Pasadena, with a board of trustees and 
authority as such. The boom had arrived and with it came a 
different class of people; many of them speculators, scru- 
pulous and otherwise ; many of them indifferent to the virtues 
of prohibition; many, indeed, favored greater liberty of con- 
duct. The entire atmosphere was changed. But the pro- 
hibitionists nevertheless continued their crusade and peti- 
tioned, February 5th, 1887, the board of trustees, through a 
committee (presenting a petition signed by 540 persons) that 
said trustees prepare an ordinance against the sale of in- 
toxicating liquors. The trustees were also requested to de- 
fend, through all courts, any contest that might be made of 
the ordinance when passed. The trustees being new and 
cautious, required a cash (or equivalent) deposit, the guar- 
antee costs of such legal defense, and the sum of $5,935 was 
thus guaranteed by certain subscribing citizens. The 
trustees were divided, some approving a stringent ordinance, 
others one more liberal, favoring certain privileges, such as 
permitting liquors to be served at meals, in hotels. The 
"liberal" sentiment prevailed, resulting in a "gentleman's 
agreement" — that there should be an exception made in case 
of the Carlton Hotel — it being then considered the one "first 
class" hotel in the town. This agreement was finally con- 
ceded by the petitioners, and the celebrated Ordinance No. 45 
was passed, and finally became a law February 19th, 1887, to 
be effective the first Monday in May following. As was to be 
expected, the anti-saloonists were filled with joy and rejoic- 
ing over the success of their efforts. Of course, also, as was 
anticipated, the saloon did not accept defeat without a 
struggle and the courts were invoked to overthrow the ordi- 
nance. The contest was carried to the Supreme Court of the 
state, and by it affirmed. Campbell having decided to contest 
the ordinance, continued in business pending an appeal and 



226 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

was arrested, tried and found guilty in the police court, and 
fined $100. He appealed his case to a higher court and con- 
tinued in business as usual; but with the final adverse ruling 
of the court he moved his stock of liquors etc., away. Thus 
ended Pasadena's first and last (open) saloon. But this did 
not finally settle the question. Blind pigs of various sizes, 
conditions and degrees of secretiveness abounded, and from 
time to time arrests were made and now and then convictions 
secured. But in many cases the jury either failed to agree, 
disregarding the evidence — usually secured by hired detec- 
tives — or found the defendant not guilty. And then after all 
it was discovered by the astute city attorney, that said 
Ordinance 45 was illegally enacted! Or it was so alleged. 
By some carelessness certain formalities had been overlooked 
in its passage, thus requiring that the whole work should be 
done over again. This was indeed a severe blow to the anti- 
saloon workers. Both the city attorney and Clerk were 
charged with intentional negligence; but this they stoutly 
denied, and with probable truth. Nothing daunted a com- 
mittee representing the various organizations favorable to 
such action, appeared before the trustees again, and re- 
quested a reenactment of Ordinance 45. In the interim 
another petition signed by 513 persons, was presented to the 
trustees requesting that Ordinance 45 be repealed, and a 
substitute, regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors by 
high license, be enacted. The trustees were besieged by 
both forces, their peace of mind upset and their lives made 
unhappy by these contending factions. Personal conflicts 
were heard of now and then. Dr. Reid again came into the 
limelight. The Progressive League representing the "lib- 
eral" element, came into action. A public meeting was 
held in the square, in which the "anti" movers were 
denounced and branded as "arbitrary and tyrannical," etc. 
W. U. Masters, B. A. O'Neill and M. H. Weight were ap- 
pointed at this meeting as the committee, which later de- 
manded of the trustees the ordinance favoring high license. 
Dr. Reid had started a little paper called The Standard in 
December, 1888, which was a lively organ during its lifetime. 
The substitute ordinance to 45 was passed September 15th, 
1888, known as Ordinance 125, containing the same provisions 
as the original Ordinance 45. Thus the prohibitionists were 
again to the fore, the protestants were far from being satis- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 227 

fied and the merry war was continued until the following 
spring election for city trustees was due. This question be- 
came the principal — almost sole — issue in that contest. This 
was the time a " Citizens Party" was organized. The elec- 
tion was practically a draw, so far as its results were con- 
cerned, for although some of the so-called prohibition can- 
didates were elected, they were, in fact, while opposed to 
saloons, liberal in their attitude towards hotels. Therefore, 
while no change was made in Ordinance 125, it was expected 
that it would have "liberal" construction and that liquors 
could be permitted with meals, in restaurants and hotels, 
under prescribed conditions. The new trustees gave their 
pledged words that no promiscuous sale of liquors would be 
allowed, and the agitation began to simmer down; Dr. Reid's 
paper by this time had suspended publication, most people 
having become tired of the agitation. Especially also, the 
boom had taken wings and left the business interests of the 
merchants in such condition, that made them long to forget 
the liquor agitation, for the more important one of earning 
bread ! This also was true of most of the other citizens, for 
these, too, were confronted with a serious financial situation 
which made them think of other things for the time being. 

Okdinance No. 220 
With the election of the board of trustees in the spring 
of 1890, who declared themselves opposed to "open saloons" 
or private porcines of obscure vision — otherwise "blind 
pigs" — the city took a rest, for a time, from liquor agita- 
tion. It was fervently hoped that the agitation was over for 
good, and that everybody would give attention to forward- 
ing his own personal affairs and, incidentally, those of the 
city. Now and then an arrest would be made of a "blind 
pigger," a trial would be held, but few convictions were 
secured, and a so-called "Enforcement Committee" busied 
itself looking for violators of the ordinance. It was the pre- 
vailing sentiment that hotels and restaurants would have the 
privilege as conceded by Ordinance 125, of furnishing malt 
liquors or wines, with dinner or lunch, within fixed hours. It 
was also generally believed that the restrictions were not 
adhered to strictly; doubtless this was true. The man who 
kept his private locker at home might be bitterly. opposed to 
the "other fellow" having the privilege of obtaining a glass 
of beer on a perf ervid day, if the same was obtained surrepti- 



228 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

tiously. And the fellow who hadn't a home with a private 
locker, shouted "hypocrite" at the man who could quench 
his thirst with impunity, hence came reproach and counter 
reproach. 

To more definitely and emphatically define the status of 
the saloon, the trustees in June, 1893, enacted Ordinance 
220, which permitted in definite language, bona fide hotels 
and restaurants, to furnish "wines or malt liquors" to be 
sold with a meal, costing not less than 20 cents (exclusive of 
liquor) between the hours of 11:30 A. M. and 1:30 P. M., or 
between the hours 5:30 and 7:30 P. M. This was intended 
principally to give the tourist hotels the opportunity of cater- 
ing to their tourist or season's guests. The ultra-prohibition- 
ist was not satisfied with the situation, for, of course, the 
blind pigs were "always with us" and at any rate, said they, 
license such as the ordinance permitted, was merely coun- 
tenancing evil — legalizing it in fact — and therefore, should 
not exist. So the dissensions continued as heretofore; these 
differences proving a ground for periodic contention and a 
constantly unsettled condition. When a pastor ran short of 
ammunition he began a prohibition outcry and once more 
aroused sentiment, one way or another. The average bus- 
iness man, or property owner, grew tired of it. Said they, 
"this eternal agitation is hurting us; our city is being adver- 
tised as a saloon town, and a town filled with violators of the 
law." They met in mass meeting and decided to have the 
liquor question definitely settled by a vote of the electors 
and made a part of the City Charter, thus taking it out of the 
hands of agitators at every spring election — and between 
times, as often as some extremist might feel the spirit move 
him. In the spring of 1912, this movement became a con- 
certed plan to amend the City Charter, and to incorporate in 
that amendment authority for the City Council to adopt an 
ordinance in conformity with the vote of the electors of the 
city bearing directly upon this long discussed question and 
bring it to final settlement. The ultra-prohibitionist, for 
his side submitted a proposition, termed Amendment No. 11, 
which absolutely prohibited the sale, or carrying in stock, 
intoxicating liquors, or dispensing such in any manner what- 
ever (excepting drug stores, on prescriptions). It also pro- 
hibited the sale of or delivery of intoxicating liquors within 
the limits of Pasadena by outside dealers. In effect, Pasa- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 229 

dena would have been "bone dry." Counter to this a more 
liberal body of citizens met together in protest and organized 
a "Citizens League." It was composed of many citizens 
prominent in business and professional walks who resented 
the continued revival of the liquor question and the effects of 
its agitation upon the business and morals of the community. 
Wm. F. Knight, a well known and active citizen, was chosen 
as the presiding officer of this organization, and it was pro- 
grammed for a definite and comprehensive campaign with 
Henry Geohegan, a prominent and popular merchant, in 
charge. This body evolved Charter Amendment No. 10, which 
proposed a liberal stipulation to this effect; that in cases 
of "hotels having 100 or more sleeping rooms," the privilege 
of furnishing liquors ' * to bona fide guests in its dining rooms, 
with the usual meal service" would be permitted. This 
amendment also granted authority to the Council to regulate 
by ordinance, the sale of "malt or vinous liquors." Con- 
forming to, in effect, Ordinance 220, then in operation, with 
the difference that a license or "permit" be issued to res- 
taurants and hotels, and placing those to whom such permits 
were granted under a bond of $500 to insure its strict observ- 
ance. A very exciting campaign ensued. The "liberal" or- 
ganization (Citizens League) obtained a signed membership 
of over 2000, headquarters were opened in the heart of the 
city and public meetings indulged in. The antis or No. 11 
protagonists were no less alive, they, too, effecting a large 
organization with S. W. Odell chairman and other prominent 
citizens in charge, and most of the pulpits electioneering for 
their beloved cause. Not all of the churches joined on this 
side however. The election was held May 24th, 1912, a full 
vote being polled. The result was as follows : For Amend- 
ment No. 10, 5234; against, 4979; giving a majority in favor 
of No. 10 of 225, in a total vote of 10,213. On Amendment No. 
11, the vote was : For, 4809 ; against, 5325 ; it being lost by a 
majority of 516. The carrying of Amendment No. 10 was a 
surprise to both sides but was accepted by its proponents as 
a fair indication of the prevalent sentiment — that visitors 
and tourists should be accorded liberal treatment and* per- 
mitted that freedom to which it was assumed, was usual in 
their home towns. The Amendment No. 10 was presented to 
the State Legislature, together with others adopted at the 
time, and formally added to our City Charter January 13th, 



230 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

1913. Under its provisions the City Council in the following 
March and May, enacted Ordinances Nos. 1322, 1329, 1339 and 
1352, and they thereby became the operating ordinances gov- 
erning the sale of liquors in the City of Pasadena. Since that 
time, until the present year (1917) no further efforts were 
made to again raise the issue thus believed to have been 
definitely settled by local agitation. But with the movement 
for a new charter in this year the prohibition element ob- 
tained a majority of the Freeholders Board and inserted a 
"bone dry" section in the proposed new charter which will 
be submitted to the voter in November, 1918. 





CHAPTER XXX 

The Newspaper Game 

pasadena 's first newspaper and others, wherein it is related 

how certain verdant ones became initiated into some of the 
intricacies of the newspaper game, and some of the conse- 
quences thereof. 

HEN Pasadena had acquired its meetin' house, its 
school, its church, and its post office, together with 
a few places of merchandising necessary for its 
pressing needs, it began to be felt that one more 
thing was lacking to complete its self-satisfaction 
and enable it to, metaphorically, hold up its head with pride. 
Laudation is very well, every community needs it. What 
better for the purpose then than the newspaper? This, indeed, 
is the advocate that reveals to the world at large the merits, 
that otherwise might be overlooked; that provides the local 
tattle to the busy homebody who must depend upon some out- 
side source for the goings-on right at home ! So it was that 
the village of Pasadena, in 1883, became mightily pleased to 
learn that a real newspaper, although but a weekly, was to 
be another evidence in fact of her prosperity and progress. 
All expressed satisfaction that someone had both the courage 
and the cash wherewith to indulge in such happy undertaking. 
Some there were, about that time, who believed that Pasadena 
had a destiny, would at some remote date become a town, 
perhaps a city ! 

There could be no town worth while without a newspaper ; 
hence the coming of one was but a herald of the wise prophets' 
prognostications. This must be the town's Stentor, to pro- 
claim its coming greatness. 

Thus it befell, that when one Charles M. Daly, for the 
nonce employed in Harry Price's "Harness Emporium,'' and 
a self-confessed once upon a time newspaper man, announced 
that upon a given date the Pasadena Chronicle would appear, 
there were many to congratulate him to his face, upon the fact. 
As an " angel " with the cash, came Ben E. Ward, of real estate 

231 



232 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

fame, the victim, doubtless, of Daly's seductive palaver, the 
financial factor in the combination. On August 16th, 1883, 
appeared the first issue of the Pasadena Chronicle, and, as I 
write, this first copy lies before me — the property of the local 
library — and I contemplate its four pages with many mem- 
ories of the days which it conjures up so agreeably. It looks 
well, even when contrasted with the magazine dailies of the 
present, if considered in relation to the circumstances sur- 
rounding it. It was well edited; its locals were not profuse, 
but were entertaining; and, as it should be, it was well 
patronized by advertisers, perhaps not one of them failing 
in his patriotic allegiance to the promising venture. Scanning 
it, I find the following advertisers whom it becomes a pleasure 
to readvertise and commend for their fidelity to the enterprise. 
"H. W. Magee, Attorney at Law," still "in our midst'' and 
still in the game. Stephen Townsend advertised to "excavate 
or plow" or "do all kinds of team work." Stephen now lives 
at Long Beach, having "excavated" sufficient of the world's 
goods to hire his plowing — was even mayor of that city. " C. B. 
Eipley, Architect and Builder." He was last heard of in 
Honolulu, and prospering. "Dr. "Woodin, Physician." I still 
remember his personal tender ministrations upon a serious 
occasion — with gratitude. Now living in Inyo County, this 
state. "Dr. J. M. Eadebaugh" — Pasadena's "first" physi- 
cian, whose genial smile and sympathizing style, soothed many 
a couch of suffering, and drove the "sick devils" off. With 
us still, as is also his benignant smile. 

T. P. Lukens advertised "Pipeing of all sorts" and "satis- 
faction guaranteed." Of course it would be so with Lukens, 
even yet as sturdy and wholesome as in those more rugged 
days. He also advertised "Homes for Sale." "Washburn 
& Watts, Eeal Estate." "Sherm" Washburn still survives 
the battle of life, living placidly and happily in his old age ; 
his partner, Watts, long since having crossed the divide. 
"W. H. Wakeley, General Hardware" and numerous other 
things in that line. "Billy" still puts off the fateful hour and, 
despite assaults upon his constitution, has ever a new joke 
to tell. These only, so far as can be discovered of our home 
advertisers, have lived to see the once humble village grow 
"from the ground up." Well, the Chronicle throve and was 
a welcome caller — every Friday. Daly was editor, solicitor, 
and item chaser ; assiduously pursuing his numerous activities 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 233 

with zeal and perseverance. Ben Ward was no laggard him- 
self, in chasing down a nimble item to its lair, or a prospective 
patron to the point of surrendering his subscription price of 
two dollars. This paper was "set up" and printed at the 
Times-Mirror office in Los Angeles. 

Thus affairs journalistic sailed upon lovely seas for several 
weeks, and the sunshine of prosperity seemed to be hovering 
over the house of Daly and Ward, which means the little den 
under the stairs leading to Williams Hall — where was the 
office. Alas, that fortune was after all but a fickle jade! 
There came a day when Editor Daly failed to register his 
personality upon the aura of Ward. It was publication day, 
and his presence was a desideratum muy pronto. Into the 
inner consciousness of Ben there came a pang of knowledge, 
for Ben knew the wherefore of Daly's lack of presence; in 
fact he had suspected its coming for some days past. He 
knew that Daly had a penchant for private libations at times. 
This, then, was one of the "times" no doubt. The quest for 
the missing editor was widespread, but fruitless, the tripod 
was a melancholy evidence of the fact, a staring note of inter- 
rogation and a proof of Ben's worst fears. 

As a fact, Daly did not appear again, and his name was 
forever removed from its once proud place at the column's 
head. Thus the enterprise fell upon Ward entirely, who, not 
wishing the responsibility, presently found purchasers in 
H. W. Magee and J. W. Wood, guileless amateurs in jOUmal- 




CIVIC CENTRE, 1883. LOOKING WEST ON COLORADO ST. FROM MARENGO AVE, 
Library, School, Martin block (hotel), Right of St. Williams block, Los Angeles House 



234 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

istic experience, but ambitious to shine therein. Ambition 
sometimes thus leaps where least expected. Perhaps the inex- 
perience was the chief excuse of this pair for relieving the 
qualms of Ben Ward and his bantling. Anyhow, these tyros 
fell upon their unsuspecting fellow citizens one fine day in 
November, 1883, and made their pronunciamento. Both 
assumed their responsibilities with that good cheer and cour- 
age which comes of lack of experience, but with good intention. 
Their trials and pleasures were co-mingled, and the pleasures 
only need be considered today when this part of the past 
record is recalled by either of them. 

Of a truth, there was much to learn, even though thirty 
odd years ago this public was very willing to be pleased, even 
eager to give aid and abetment to any enterprise that was 
begun in the little village yclept Pasadena. Superficially, it 
was simple. If Simpson plowed that ten acre lot and put in 
some new orchard, it was an item of interest to his neighbors. 
If Smith bought a new buggy, it was a piece of news worth 
mentioning. If Johnson sold his oranges at a good figure, the 
rest of us were filled with cheer to know it and glad for 
Johnson's family, for it meant a new hat for Mary and many 
other needed things to them. A basket of luscious grapes, a 
mammoth melon donated to the editor, found space for com- 
mendation and an invitation to others to do likewise! The 
goings and comings of the settlers were chronicled; and thus 
their neighbors discovered their movements and affairs. 
Indeed, the village newspaper is a tattler of small affairs, a 
busybody prowling about for crumbs of gossip, which all read 
£0 eagerly, even if scornfully and scofhngly. 

A passing glimpse of many things 
Of village gossip — happenings; — 
If Brown has painted his old gate 
Or Smith has purchased real estate; 
Of Mrs. Williams' Easter hat — 
Be sure the paper mentions that! 

And so we lingered on ; Magee dipping his pen in lurid ink 
to write epics on mundane things, occasionally descending low 
enough to take the two dollars from an admiring new sub- 
scriber, or chase the recalcitrant advertiser to his most secret 
lair! Came along, presently, one J. E. Clarke, with fell 
designs upon the newspaper field, and in a brief interview 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 235 

bought Magee 's interests in the Chronicle, for it did not take 
very long for the Judge to discover many disillusioning things 
about a newspaper office ; principally that the ducats did not 
come in Pactolean streams and that one could not live on 
watermelons alone. "With Clarke came also E. N. Sullivan, 
a practical typo. A new arrangement was the result, and we 
then find that "Clarke, Wood & Sullivan" were the trio who 
proposed to assume the newspaper obligations to the public. 
The result was The Pasadena and Valley Union, the first issue, 
enlarged and improved with the changed title, appearing Feb- 
ruary 16th, 1884, just six months after the original Chronicle 
made its baby debut. Clarke was a capable and experienced 
man in the game and a versatile writer. A new office was 
secured in the upstairs of the Magee building — where now 
stands the Pasadena Savings and Trust Company — and an 
outfit of type and other belongings secured — on the install- 
ment plan, my brethren. An eight column folio, typographic- 
ally beyond cavil, editorially passing fair, it lays at my hand 
as I write these words, a memorial to ambitious efforts. As 
the title indicated, its scope was broadened to include the 
whole San Gabriel Valley, each of its budding towns not yet 
large enough for its own paper, being represented by corre- 
spondents. Covina, Glendora, Duarte, and San Gabriel — all 
gave their weekly quota of news — locally interesting to each. 
One of these correspondents, he of San Gabriel, was its then 
dignified "Justice" of the high and mighty "Bench" of that 
burg — Otheman Stevens, to wit. Otheman was our "regular 
correspondent" between capiases and writs, and such legal 
appendices to the profession as might occur in course, and a 
good one at that! Today, as the highly successful and truly 
capable Los Angeles Examiner's dramatic critique and 
special writer he may scorn the memory of those early days, 
but he cannot deny them, for here stands the record to con- 
front him! One of the interesting incidents connected with 
the early establishment of the Union, I will relate with 
pleasure; a tribute let it be to the good heart and modesty 
of a man now gathered to his fathers. One day, when all 
were busily engaged in arranging the new office, there ap- 
peared an elderly gentleman of agreeable mien, who said he 
used to be a printer in the long ago, and "could he help a 
little, so as to 'get his hand in' again, could he assist us 
1 laying ' (distributing) type?" He was informed that his 



236 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

services would be acceptable, as we were in much hurry. 
Quietly he hung up his coat on a nail behind the door, and 
proceeded to get busy. Industriously he worked, every day, 
for a week; saying little, whistling now and then a bar or 
two of an old time air. No one asked him who he was or 
whence he had come, for the " tramp printer" was more com- 
mon then than in the present day of the linotype. 

The type had been distributed, the office was "in form" 
at last, and the stranger, seeing the finish, one evening took 
down his coat from its nail, and prepared to depart. The 
proprietors were loath to see him go, so well had he labored, 
so quiet and unostentatiously had he performed his share; 
but there was no need of the " extra" now, and he was 
requested to name the sum due him for his work. I yet see 
the whimsical smile upon that face as he said, "Well, brother, 
you don't owe me one cent." "Don't owe you a cent?" said 
the astonished editor, "how is that? You've worked a whole 
week." "Well, you see," responded the other, "I liked that 
job first rate, and just wanted to know whether I'd lost my 
old knack of it. I'm John W. Hugus, and I live down on 
Moline Avenue, and I'm mighty glad to give you a helping 
hand!" The editor was taken aback, for this John W. Hugus 
was the wealthiest man then in Pasadena, having not long- 
before arrived and established his home. It was a good joke 
in that sanctum, and long remembered with enjoyment. John 
Hugus has marked "30" long ago, but for years was one of 
Pasadena's well known figures. 

Afterwards, the Union moved to more commodious quar- 
ters in the Mullens block on South Fair Oaks Avenue and 
acquired a press, not a Hoe rotary of the modern brand, but 
just an old-fashioned "Washington" hand machine, that used 
to be the proper caper in country newspaper offices. Prior 
to this acquirement, the Union had been printed by the Times- 
Mirror Co., of Los Angeles, as had been the Chronicle, the set- 
up forms being hauled back and forth each week. 

During the extraordinary rains of 1884 it was no easy task 
to haul these forms across the Arroyo Seco, the high waters 
making it a somewhat dangerous proceeding. On one occasion 
the proprietors, with a pair of "broncos," started from Los 
Angeles long after night had set in, dark and rainy. As they 
approached the usual Arroyo crossing place at Sycamore 
Grove, it became a serious problem to find a safe crossing, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 237 

as it was too dark to see the road leading to the fording place ; 
but one of the twain by crawling along the bank, finally found 
it. The Arroyo, swollen by a week's rainfall, had grown to 
a formidable current, broad and swift. But cross we must, 
for we had the Union to deliver next day, to waiting sub- 
scribers. The writer was, somehow, intrusted with the reins, 
but it was conceded that brute instinct in this case must be 
superior to human intelligence, hence the reins were dropped 
slack upon the broncos' backs and they were admonished to 
"get up. ' ' Without a moment's hesitation the brutes plunged 
into that black and surging stream. Down sank the wagon 
until it seemed we were going into a bottomless pit. One of 
the partners had, once upon a time, "preached"; now he 
"prayed." Whether it was the prayer or whether the fine 
instinct of the broncos, it came about that after much plung- 
ing and some swimming, the outfit emerged upon the only safe 
landing place upon the opposite side, and with one long and 
mighty pull, a landing was negotiated. I say the only place, 
for upon examination the next day, it was discovered that 
those horses, with marvelous instinct, had swam up stream, 
against a terrific torrent, and had landed at the only possible 
landing place — only wagon wide — that could have been found 
anywhere within two hundred yards either up or down the 
stream ! Since then I have had some respect for brute instinct. 
A few days after this occurrence a man who endeavored to 
ford the Arroyo at this spot was drowned, as were also his 
two horses. George Glover, now of South Pasadena, was one 
of the Union force who received his weekly stipend from the 
"front office." Sometimes, the aforesaid stipend was hard 
to raise, but the "force," consisting of two men and a "devil," 
never struck, but were always hopeful and helpful. Sullivan 
soon departed for another field of endeavor, and my associate, 
Clarke, was taken ill and remained so for many months, his 
interest being purchased by myself upon his return to the 
office in the summer of '84. In that year a serious accident 
compelled me to eventually dispose of the loved paper to 
Charles A. Gardner, who became proprietor in the early part 
of 1885. Then in the fall of 1885 Clarke again purchased an 
interest with Gardner. The office was moved to a building in 
the allev now the rear of No. 44 East Colorado Street. 



238 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

A Daily Paper 

The Union continued in Gardner's and Clarke's hands, 
with some changes, as a weekly, without opposition, until 
1886. Pasadena was growing rapidly now, the first whisper- 
ings of the boom being noted. On February 21st, 1886, H. J. 
Vail began to publish the Star, at first a weekly publication, 
and the precursor of the present day Star-News. 

Vail had been the owner of the new Sharon, Iowa, Star, 
and liked the name. Associated with Vail was W. L. Vail, 
his son. They made a good paper, notable for its independent 
and frank manner of speech, and rabidly Republican in poli- 
tics. A spade was a spade to Vail, and his thoughts were not 
obscured by fine phrases. But the public now demanded more 
than a weekly, they must have a home paper that would dish 
up the news daily. 

The Union Publishing Co. was organized early in 1887 for 
the purpose of supplying this need by converting the weekly 
Union into a daily. Early in 1887, the Daily Union became a 
fact. The Union Junior was a small sheet issued in conjunc- 
tion with the weekly Union during the Citrus Fair, which 
occurred in April, 1885. It was continued, intermittently, until 
September. It was not in reality a daily newspaper, but an 
adjunct to the regular issue, there being a growing necessity 
for important news, daily. J. E. Clarke was editor in charge ; 
J. E. Howard, manager; Bayard T. Smith, E. M. Furlong, 
W. U. Masters, P. M. Green, and J. W. Wood, stockholders 
and directors. Although three of the five directors were Dem- 
ocratic politically, the political attitude of the Union was to 
remain as it had been — a supporter of the Eepublican faith. 
This policy had been agreed upon in advance. 

The Star also became a daily, being first issued as such 
February 9th, 1887, and was, in fact, Pasadena's first real 
daily newspaper. And now Pasadena had two good daily 
newspapers with up to date news service, both ably conducted. 
W. H. Storms, recently shot to death in Oakland, was for 
several years a writer on the Union i i staff. ' ' 

But despite the ephemeral prosperity brought on by the 
boom — which was now rampant — the Union was soon in finan- 
cial straits, mostly because of mismanagement and over prod- 
igality in expenses. It had been agreed between the stock- 
holders that no one should sell his stock without first proffer- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 239 

ing it to his fellow stockholders ; nevertheless, Dr. John McCoy 
purchased Clarke's and Howard's interests, and with it the 
control, in 1888. McCoy did not know anything about this 
sort of business, as he soon discovered. The poor old Union 
hit a toboggan and began to slide. Pay day was the most heart 
rending day of the week to the good doctor. His diagnosis 
was wrong and his therapeutics did not comprehend the news- 
paper treatment. To cap the climax of ill fortune, the boom 
ceased to rage and times got hard. The Union succumbed 
so far that its creditors demanded a receiver, and it befell 
that the chronicler hereof was that victim. The next year 
was not quite joyless, yet full of badgering creditors and 
struggles to pare expenses to balance an attenuated income. 
Internal economics were exercised until the receiver-editor- 
manager could not look the "devil" — who may have been 
Johnny Westring — in the countenance without growing pale. 
There even came a day when a minion of the sheriff entered. 
It was just when Frank Hearn and Johnny, the devil, had 
started the press and the usual afternoon edition was peeling 
off merrily. The sheriff's deputy was armed with the proper 
writ of the law and did a very sagacious thing — he attached 
one of the cogwheels of the press ! Of course, the subjugated 
cog had to cease revolving and the press hushed its merry 
song. ' ' Stalemate ! ' ' said Frank, and stalemate it was. Duly 
the deputy removed the wheel and departed with it, ostensibly 
for Los Angeles and the mighty sheriff. But was the Union 
force to be baffled by a mere hireling of the law! Was the 
public to be cheated of their afternoon pabulum! Hardly, 
with two such sleuths as Hearn and Westring on the job! 
Softly and craftily these boys followed the aforesaid minion's 
trail. It was a hot day, and there was a blind pig ahead! 
Ha! they were right! Never, never, was a deputy sheriff 
known to renege a cold brew on a hot day. Nor did this one ; 
and by wonderful instinct he wended his way directly to John 
Senich's secret porcine retreat on Kansas Street, the two 
sleuths hot on his trail. But the deputy lost his sagacity then, 
for he carelessly set down the seized cogwheel outside the 
Senich door and disappeared within its portals. "Hist!" 
said Westring, " 'tis ours!" 

The seized wheel was recaptured and soon affixed to its 
old place, and with doors barred, the press resumed its merry 
chansons and the entire Union force was happy ! What mat- 



240 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

ter if the myrmidon, later discovering this treachery, stormed 
the citadel and demanded back the filched wheel! It was a 
case of caveat emptor' with the boys, and they scoffed the 
demand. The poor outgeneraled deputy took his departure 
downcast. In the meantime the Star also was struggling 
in the financial crisis that had fallen upon the town, but was 
bravely making a noise to inspire confidence. It was a hope- 
less situation for one or both, and each waiting for the other's 
decease ! In the end it was agreed that the Union strike its 
colors, the Star buying its "good name," and circulation — 
what was left of it. The consolidation occurred August 3d, 
1889. 

It was easier to surrender than go on, and the stockholders 
were mostly happy to get a chance to quit and not wait for 
assessments. 

The Union assets were just sufficient to pay the creditors, 
all except the editor-receiver, who did not even get his rent, 
nor a dollar, for a year's labors. 

The Star struggled through the gloomy days following the 
boom epoch, bravely endeavoring to instill life and business 
into the soporific town. Vail expected to get a boost by an 
appointment as postmaster, which was placed in the hands of 
ex-Congressman Markham, then candidate for governor, by 
Congressman (General) Vanclever. But Markham failed to 
select Vail, and as the Star was not rending the heavens for 
Markham, it was decided to get it into more friendly hands 
in order to insure its support for Markham 's candidacy. 

The man was found in George F. Kernaghan, and asso- 
ciates. I believe Professor Lowe was one of these, James 
McLachlan managing the transaction. Kernaghan took over 
the Star and soon became postmaster. Perhaps this was a 
mere coincidence, but as he made a good postmaster no one 
kicked — except Vail. 

The Star revived under its new management. Then in 
1891 Charles A. Gardner became owner. With Gardner was 
associated Theodore Coleman as editorial writer and city 
editor. In 1900 J. P. Baumgartner and Lyman B. King (now 
of Redlands) became proprietors and so continued until 1904, 
when it passed into the hands of Messrs. W. F. and C. H. 
Prisk, who brought to it exceptional business capacity and 
experience. From year to year improvements and additions 
have been added until today few papers outside of metropoli- 
tan cities can boast of newspaper plants equal to this. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 241 

As a local newspaper the Star-News (see next article) has 
no superior in any city. It has kept pace with the growth of 
the community and forestalls rivalry. Those who have par- 
ticipated in or observed the passing show of newspaper 
endeavor in Pasadena may recall with stirring pulses its early 
days of struggle and futile effort. To one of these — H. J. 
Vail — again become anchored here, this contemplation doubt- 
less affords subject for serious retrospection and cogitation. 

The Daily News 

The Daily News was born of ambition and not to "fill a 
long felt want." It came into existence in 1890 as a stock 
company, headed by W. S. G-illmore, long the local correspond- 
ent of the Times. Gillmore attempted to run a good paper. 
Mrs. Isabel Bates Winslow was on the staff. But lack of 
capital to carry the enterprise through to success hampered 
Gillmore 's efforts, and when an opportunity came to sell he 
was glad to part with it — not quite so happy as his financial 
backer, W. C. Stuart, was. 

The purchaser was Benjamin W. Hahn, who organized a 
company to buy it. Ben says he was instigated to do this 
out of a fit of pique, because the proprietor of another paper 
charged him for a mere local item, a piece of news which he 
thought the editor needed ! And this is the way Ben got even. 
The new proprietor set to work to encourage business, hired 
an editorial scribbler and put some needed "ginger" into the 
office. Presently along came Walter Melick, with nothing 
but grit, ambition politically and an ability to work all day 
and night, too. 

Melick presently associated with him Lon F. Chapin as the 
business end of the office. Chapin was also a hustler and a 
business-getter, worthy of all praise. The paper under this 
new stimulus became prosperous. Melick was elected to the 
Legislature and his paper became an influential factor in 
republican politics. Unhappily, Melick died in 1901. Then, 
in March, 1908, Judge Pryor, an old-time editor, who thought 
he had retired from the alluring game, changed his mind and 
bought Melick 's interest and the firm was Chapin & Pryor. 
This arrangement continued until March, 1909, when Pryor 
sold his interest to Chapin. Then in November, 1910, Chapin 
sold the Neivs to Robert B. Armstrong, or ostensibly so, 
though it was told in Gath that the Edison Company was the 



242 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

real purchaser, or at least financial backers of Armstrong. 
No one has verified this suspicion. Armstrong made a mis- 
take in the spring election of 1910 by "getting in" the wrong 
side for popularity. It was a serious error and the business 
end of the paper — ever sensitive — suffered. 

Chapin was paid a fine price for his paper, but Armstrong- 
sold it for much less in 1912 to Samuel T. Clover, a newspaper 
genius — on the tripod. Perhaps the paper only changed edi- 
tors! Clover "endeavored with might and main to make the 
paper pay again, ' ' but it was a burden too great for even Sam 
Clover's genius and he surrendered to Frank C. Roberts, pro- 
prietor of the Long Beach Telegram, a radical G. 0. P. patriot 
and a candidate for Congress — alack! Frank ran in a poor 
year for the G. 0. P., for Hiram Johnson owned the voters 
pretty largely in this bailiwick that year, and they beat Rob- 
erts with Charley Bell, progressive-prohibitionist. So Frank 
sunk in the sargasso sea of politics. 

Came then back to his old love our friend Pryor, who 
couldn't resist the fate that drags retired editors from repose- 
ful couches to the strenuous striving with copy and the tuneful 
rhythm of the Mergenthaler. He again essayed the old game. 
A while longer and Chapin, too, was inveigled from the bucolic 
labors among sweet-scented orange groves to which he thought 
he had retired. Here again were the old "pardners" fit and 
pert, listening to the beckoning hand of fate ! They were like 
the colored maiden lady, who, being asked if yet married, 
replied, "No, sah, not yet, but I'm still a strugglin'." So 
they were struggling to revive the old business that once 
belonged. And they were progressing towards it when Prisk 
Brothers, the far-seeing Star proprietors, stepped in and pur- 
chased the whole outfit. And now we see the erstwhile rivals 
mingling brains and business and giving Pasadena a fine 
example of a family journal in the Star-News. Both Judge 
Pryor and Lon F. Chapin went into the new combination and 
became working factors in that prosperous enterprise. Thus 
endeth the chapter of journalistic tribulations relating to the 
first and also to the most important newspaper ventures in 
this bailiwick. 

Of course there were weeklies and "weaklies" — of numer- 
ous kinds and pretension — all of them ephemeral and none of 
them substantially backed by brains and money together. 
For example, there was the Standard, conducted by Dr. H. A. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 243 

Reid, whose sole purpose was to propagate the anti-saloon 
idea and sequestrate blind porkers. The good doctor — with 
the best of intentions — failed to differentiate between a man 
who absorbed a cocktail or a glass of beer and the most repre- 
hensible criminal in durance ; and thus his trenchant pen fore- 
stalled its purpose and his venture failed. 

Then came the Critic, J. M. Shawhan, editor — a very cred- 
itable appearing weekly of good literary flavor and rabidly 
democratic in politics. Shawhan was encouraged in every 
way, except financially, by his political brothers, and distin- 
guished himself in other ways besides being a knight of the 
pen. Among these other accomplishments was his ability to 
sing, and his pure tenor was many times heard in the Epis- 
copal choir. After the Critic became a fleeting memory, 
Shawhan left Southern California and was afterwards heard 
of in theatrical circles. He has been dead some years. 

Life was a revival of the Critic, but paradoxical as it may 
appear, filled an early grave, thus proving its name illogical. 
The Journal, conducted by some employees of the defunct 
Union, lasted a few uneasy months and quietly expired. F. S. 
Hearn, W. H. Korstian and C. W. Jackson were the authors 
of this effort and it deserved a better fate than befell it. 

Mere mention may be made of the Weekly Pasadenan, 
established by J. D. Gilcrist, which made its appearance Octo- 
ber 21st, 1885, and with that one solitary effort expired ! H. E. 
Lawrence moved his moribund Vista from Sierra Madre to 
the Crown City and renamed it The Crown Vista. That was 
in November, 1891. Lawrence was a very plucky and some- 
what energetic publisher, who managed to stem the tide of 
misfortune and stand off his creditors until 1895, when he 
succumbed to his burdens. He later revived, at Alhambra, 
and continued there a small paper in that field for some time. 

There was Town Talk, a most creditable weekly, devoted 
to gossip and social affairs, founded by W. S. Gillmore and 
ably assisted by Isabel Bates Winslow, who had been the 
well known society reporter for local dailies. Town Talk 
lived a year or more, then followed the long line of more or 
less esteemed ancestors to an humble grave which was in this 
instance garnished by tokens of kindly remembrance. 

Numerous fraternal, scholastic and sectarian enterprises 
have appeared upon the literary plane — The Woodman, The 
White Ribbon, All Saints' Record, Throop Bulletin, High 



244 PASADENA— HISTOEICAL AND PERSONAL 

School Item, and so on. Each of them had its special field 
to fill, or it may be said, yet fills it, for some of them still exist 
and, mayhap, thrive. The latest to appeal to the critical pub- 
lic is the Library and Civic Magazine, issued as its cognomen 
indicates, in furtherance of the civic interests of the city and 
especially as the expositor of public library affairs. It is 
edited by Mrs. Gussie Packard Dubois, whose high quality 
of literary experience and gifts impress themselves upon its 
pages and give it a character and flavor of its own. 

Eeading the long list of these enterprises it will be seen 
that Pasadena has had opportunity to test the abilities of 
many budding Danas or Greeleys. 




CHAPTER XXXI 
Banks and Bankers 



THE FIRST BANK. HOW A CHANCE WORD STARTED A BIG FINANCIAL INSTI- 
TUTION AND THE MEN WHO MADE ITS BEGINNING. 





ASADENA has been fortu- 
nate in its banks and its 
bankers. Always have they 
been factors in movements 
for the betterment of the 
city and in enterprises that have 
given it reputation and forwardness. 
It looks easy to be a banker — to the 
man on the outside — but it is not so. 
The banker goes home with a head- 
ache and a dyspepsia very often. 
His home of supposed quiet and 
relaxation is often made painful by 
a memory of the "turn down" he 
was compelled to give an old 
acquaintance — perhaps a friend — 
that very day. "Accommodation" 
is a fine word, but cannot be treated 

too liberally in a bank, else the dividends will fail, and worse. 
Some kindly disposed bankers have found sorrow in this 
truth when it was too late, and stockholders shorn of dividends 
because of over-confidence in man's promises. 

There are seven banks and each with its associated sav- 
ings and trust institutions now doing business in Pasadena. 
There were more, but consolidation eliminated some of them. 
The gross resources of Pasadena's banks now reach a total 
of nearly $20,000,000, growing every year into more dazzling 
figures. 

The beginning of the banking business of Pasadena was 
the casually uttered words of a man who jestingly started the 
machinery that made a bank when he coined them. On a 
pleasant afternoon in the fall of 1884 several prominent vil- 
lagers sat on the high platform which then constituted the 

245 



P. M. GREEN 

Pasadena's First Banker 



246 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

sidewalk or "porch" of Barney Williams' store. That plat- 
form was the public forum on fine days. These men were 
idly discussing the casual topics of the day. Among them 
were P. M. Green, A. P. Porter and H. W. Magee. There 
were two or three others of less importance to this recital. 
Agreeable dalliance prevailed, stories were told and pros- 
pects for the growing village considered. One of these men — 
P. M. Green — remarked, "We ought to have a bank here." 
"Yes, we need it now," said another as he knocked his heels 
against the porch to emphasize his words. Porter was whit- 
tling a stick, as was his habit, and he whittled more vigor- 
ously. Magee told another story. Green became obsessed with 
his subject and made further remarks upon the necessity of 
a bank, and it was then generally discussed. The party 
broke up presently, going their various ways homeward, but 
the seed had been sown and the conversation there begun led 
to further deliberations upon the same subject and soon to 
the actual formation of a plan which eventually led to the 
organization of Pasadena's first bank — the Pasadena Bank, 
afterwards the First National. 

This first organization was effected November 21st, 1884, 
with the following board of directors : P. M. Green, Henry G. 
Bennett, B. F. Ball, John Allin, J. Banbury, George H. Bone- 
brake (of Los Angeles) and D. Galbraith. P. M. Green was 
chosen president ; B. F. Ball, vice president ; and D. Galbraith, 
cashier. A room was secured in the Martin Block, on the 
southeast corner of Colorado Street and Fair Oaks Avenue, 
and business actually begun January 12th, 1885. 

The capital stock was $25,000, and the entire force at first 
consisted of Messrs. Green and Galbraith. Green was a 
"green" hand in the banking business, but had the respect 
and confidence of everyone, as did Galbraith, and it was not 
long before the new institution was doing a good business. 
Its first statement, made December 31st, 1885, showed deposits 
of $148,966.75, and a total volume of business for the period 
of its existence of $5,200,000, a good presage of the success 
which has attended it ever since. 

Ambitious to keep up with the times, a charter for a 
Niational bank was obtained May 10th, 1886, and it became the 
First National Bank of Pasadena, the same officers contin- 
uing. At this time, also, a lot upon the northwest corner 
of Colorado Street and Fair Oaks Avenue was purchased, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 247 

and upon this corner was built a three-story building, the 
lower floor of which was handsomely fitted up for the bank, 
and here the First National Bank pursued its affairs for many 
years, thriving with the prosperity of the community and 
affording its patrons ample opportunities for satisfactory 
business. The boom that began just about the time of the 
occupation of the new quarters by the bank required a pretty 
level-headed man at its helm. Fortunately, it had him, and 
fortunately, too, for its patrons, that a man of P. M. Green's 
caliber was at the head of the bank. Many a badgered bor- 
rower and distressed boomer found in P. M. Green a stanch 
friend and wise counsellor in his unhappy moments, and a 
whole community mourned when he died, March 24th, 1903. 
The financial somersaults of that period did not endanger 
that bank, though its business diminished greatly, as will be 
noted by the following figures for the first five years: 

Deposits Business 

1885 $ 148,966.75 $ 5,200,000.00 

1886 583,719.18 30,900,000.00 

1887 1,039,057.72 46,920,084.00 

1888 514,840.00 31,184,166.00* 

1889 341,182.26 16,827,000.00 

Following Green came, April 30th, 1903, Alexander E. 
Metcalfe, who had been the bank's legal adviser for some 
years. He was elected president and served until his death, 
in May, 1905. E. H. May succeeded Metcalfe in June of 
that year, and continued as president for six years, until 
November, 1911. May had been connected with the First 
National Bank for many years, rising from a clerkship to 
its head. When May retired, W. H. Vedder, well and favor- 
ably known as Pasadena's second mayor, was selected to 
fill his place. The selection was a popular one and the bank 
continued on its prosperous road under his management, 
but ill health compelled him to relinquish some of his arduous 
duties, and in May, 1915, he resigned the presidency to become 
chairman of the board of directors, which position he fills at 
this time. Vedder 's successor was Albert E. Edwards, known 
to his friends as "Bert," because they have seen him grow 
up from boyhood, almost, in the bank, filling nearly every 
position from messenger boy up to the presidency, always 

* Boom collapse. 



248 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

wearing the same beaming countenance, no matter whether 
you want to negotiate a loan or introduce a new customer. 
The officers of the First National Bank are, at this writing : 
A. E. Edwards, president; W. H. Vedder, chairman of the 
board of directors; A. K. McQuilling, vice president; H. C. 
Hotaling, vice president; J. S. MacDonnell, vice president 
and cashier; T. W. Smith, assistant cashier. The directors 
are: E. B. Blinn, F. G. Cruickshank, A. E. Edwards, Harry 
Gray, H. C. Hotaling, F. C. E. Mattison, John McDonald, 
A. K. McQuilling, R. I. Bogers, Don C. Porter, J. Foster 
Bhodes and W. H. Vedder. 

Its deposits on September 14th, 1917, were $2,259,230.47. 

It is also designated as a United States depository. 

The Pasadena Trust and Savings Bank 

Affiliated with the First National Bank is its sister insti- 
tution named above. It was organized as a savings bank 
and as a trust company. 

In this institution even larger funds are handled than by 
its associate, no less than $3,375,849 being the total of its 
resources, as shown by its last financial statement. Combined 
deposits of both institutions are $5,216,623. 

The officers of the Trust and Savings Bank are as follows : 
W. H. Vedder, chairman of the board; A. E. Edwards, presi- 
dent ; John McDonald, vice president ; Henry A. Doty, treas- 
urer; Guy H. Wood, assistant treasurer; W. D. Lacey, trust 
officer. The directors are the same as the First National. 

The San Gabkiel Valley Bank 

The San Gabriel Valley Bank was organized under the 
laws of the State of California, February 6th, 1886. 

Its projectors believed there was room for another bank- 
ing institution owing to the increasing business prospects. 
Frank M. Ward was its chief promoter, and secured the 
co-operation of Alonzo Tower (an Eastern man who had been 
making some local investments), Clarence S. Martin, Byron 
W. Bates, Lyman Craig, J. G. Miller and Walter R. E. Ward, 
all well known in Pasadena business circles. 

The original capitalization was $50,000. A lot was pur- 
chased on North Fair Oaks Avenue, just north of the Wil- 
liams Block, and a two-story brick building built upon it, its 
lower floor being arranged for banking conveniences. F. M. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 249 

Ward was made president; B. W. Bates, cashier; the board 
of directors being composed of the persons named. The new 
bank attracted a good share of business and prospered suffi- 
ciently to desire a better location, which was secured by the 
purchase of the southeast corner of Colorado Street and 
Fair Oaks Avenue and the erection upon it of a handsome 
two-story block, in the fall of 1886. , The directorate and offi- 
cers were changed that year, H. W. Magee being made presi- 
dent and J. W. Hugus vice president, much strengthening the 
institution. Bates continued as cashier. 

In 1887, Colonel W. A. Bay, a banker from Chicago, pur- 
chased Magee 's interests and succeeded him as president. 
Ray remained until 1890, when Magee repurchased Ray's 
interest and was once more made president. 

In 1900 Magee was appointed by Governor Markham a 
member of the State Bank Commission, whereupon he resigned 
his connection with the bank. In his new official capacity 
Magee made a thorough study of banking and bank laws, 
and upon the expiration of his term as commissioner wrote 
a valuable work on Banks and Banking, which has gone to 
three editions. 

Frank C. Bolt became Magee 's successor, and ably filled 
the position for years, when by the consolidation of this bank 
with the Union National, in 1911, he became chairman of the 
board of trustees of that bank, which position he now fills, 
and is, I believe, the dean of Pasadena's bankers. 

The San Gabriel Valley Bank underwent the same serious 
loss in business with the collapse of the boom as did its neigh- 
bor. In 1888 its deposits were $238,156.44. In 1890 there 
was a decrease to $68,764 — a serious loss. After that year 
a slow accretion continued until it had reached $675,000 on 
the clav of its absorption by the Union National, December 1st, 
1911. 

In February, 1891, a savings department was added, and 
did its share in taking care of the savings of the thrifty. 
This department had on deposit when it became absorbed 
$456,000. 

The Security National 

After E. H. May had sold his interests in the First 
National Bank, in November, 1911 — having been associated 
with it since September, 1886 — he devoted himself for a time 



250 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

to rest and recuperation, just preparing for another effort, 
for, being yet in his prime, he was also ambitious not to "rust 
out." His destined opportunity came in 1912, and he seized 
it by securing a fine room in the Chamber of Commerce Build- 
ing and fitting it up luxuriously and substantially for banking 
purposes. Here, in April, 1912, he opened the Security 
National Bank with a capitalization of $100,000 and the fol- 
lowing associate directors and officers : E. H. May, president ; 
John W. Roach, vice president; E. Crawford May, vice presi- 
dent; C. L. Wright, cashier; J. M. Stone, assistant cashier; 
and these directors : F. C. Fairbanks, Peter Orban, Henry 
Sherry, "S. S. Wold, J. H. Harrison, in addition to the other 
officers named. 

On September 14th, 1917, the deposits in the Security 
Bank had grown to $813,376.04, and its entire resources over 
$1,600,000. 

The Security Bank has taken its place among the leading- 
banks, as could be expected in such experienced hands. 

The Union National 

The Union National Bank is the evolution of a savings 
bank and the epitome of careful and steadfast business enter- 
prise. Bobert Eason was the organizer of this institution in 
its beginning, then known as the Union Savings Bank. Eason 
was a capitalist and banker from Iowa, who had adopted 
some California climate, and could not "just set around" 
and do nothing, so set an example of " retiring " in this way, 
associating with him the following good men as officers : 
H. M. Gabriel, president; Bobert Eason, vice president; H. C. 
Durand, Dr. Norman Bridge and A. R. Metcalfe. Business 
was begun March 6th, 1895, in a room on South Raymond 
Avenue. Soon it was found that more commodious quarters 
were needed, to provide which Robert Eason purchased the 
northeast corner of Raymond Avenue and Colorado Street 
and built a fine three-story building thereon, and adapted it 
to banking purposes. Eason succeeded Gabriel as president 
and his son Willis became cashier. 

In February, 1905, Holloway I. Stuart and associates pur- 
chased this bank and assumed command of its affairs. At the 
date of this transfer the capital stock was $100,000 and 
deposits about $1,000,000 — commercial and savings. 

The new board of directors were: Holloway I. Stuart, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 251 

president; W. E. Barnes, vice president; E. H. Groenendyke, 
cashier; Dr. Norman Bridge, B. F. Ball, additional directors. 

Holloway Stuart had been connected with the First 
National Bank for several years — latterly as cashier — prior to 
his assuming charge of the Union. It was the habit of the 
First National Bank to graduate its young men to more 
advanced positions. Stuart's management was at once felt, 
the business flourishing under his guidance, the deposits 
increasing half a million in the next six months. 

In addition to the commercial end of the institution was 
installed the Pasadena Savings and Trust Company, name 
changed to First Trust and Savings Company, November, 
1917, which, in July, 1905, had over $1,000,000 on deposit. 
This associated company was conducted under the same roof 
and with the same officers. 

On May 2d, 1909, a new charter was obtained and the two 
banks became the Union National and the Union Trust and 
Savings, respectively, and have since continued business under 
these charters. Another advance was made December 1st, 
1911, when the San Gabriel Valley Bank was merged with the 
Union National. 

It had been evident that Pasadena was having a plethora 
of banks for its necessary business, and this merger set a 
good example for the solidification of financial concerns that 
was later successfully carried out by others, thereby strength- 
ening the surviving corporations. 

By this consolidation the joint capital and resources of 
these institutions was increased to $3,000,000 in the commer- 
cial department and $2,250,000 in the savings department. 

F. C, Bolt, president of the San Gabriel Valley Bank, 
became president of the board of trustees of the merged insti- 
tutions. On the death of W. R. Barnes, E. H. Groenendyke 
became vice president, filling this position with great popu- 
larity until his untimely death in 1916. 

The roster now reads : H. I. Stuart, president ; Frank C. 
Bolt, chairman of board of trustees ; C. J. Hall, vice president ; 
S. Washburn, vice president; John Willis Baer, vice presi- 
dent; W. A. Barnes, cashier. 

According to the most recent statement the deposits of 
the Union National Bank are $3,198,354.27. 

The Union Trust and Savings Bank shows deposits of 
$3,642,887.31. 



252 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The American Bank and Tkust Company 

The American Bank and Trust Company was organized 
in 1905 by Isaac Springer, A. J. Bertonneau, D. Galbraitli, 
Dr. W. D. Turner, Thomas D. Allin, W. B. Loughery and 
John S. Gove. Springer was its first president and Galbraitli 
cashier. It began business at the corner of Broadway and 
Colorado Street, prospering slowly. Later, E. L. McCormick 
became head of it and Dr. G. Roscoe Thomas its vice presi- 
dent. It was purchased and absorbed by J. B. Coulston and 
associates in 1911. 

Bankers' Savings Bank 

An allied branch of the Pasadena National, for savings, 
was opened for business in 1905 with Henry Newby presi- 
dent and Harry D. Pyle cashier. In 1906 its officers were 
Isaac Bailey president and Elmer E. Webster cashier. It 
then had deposits of $250,000 and was improving its business 
satisfactorily. In 1908 the stockholders of the Crown City 
Bank purchased a controlling interest, and moved the Bank- 
ers' Savings to the quarters of the Crown City institution 
and changed its name to conform with its newer alliance, 
April 5th, 1909. Harry Shlaudeman was elected president 
at this time, but was succeeded by J. B. Coulston in 1909, who 
had purchased his interests. 

The Crown City Bank 

This bank was organized April 16th, 1906, the officers being 
W. H. Bailey, president; A. A. Chubb, vice president; W. H. 
Kindig, secretary; A. B. Palmer, treasurer; J. O. Isaacson, 
cashier. Its capital was $25,000. It was originally located 
at East Pasadena, but when control was purchased by J. B. 
Coulston in 1907 was moved farther into the city. 

Ceown City Trust and Savings Bank 

Associate of its namesake and managed by the same offi- 
cers, its fortunes following the parent institution the while. 
Its business is conducted in adjacent premises to the National 
Bank of Pasadena, which absorbed the Crown City Bank. 
The deposits July 1st, 1917, were $1,149,073.93. Officers of 
the Crown City Trust and Savings Bank are : J. B. Coulston, 
president ; Edward J. Pyle, vice president ; Charles A. Good- 
year, vice president ; H. H. Goodrich, vice president ; Leon V. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 253 

Shaw, vice president; R. C. Davis, cashier and trust officer; 
E. W. Smith, assistant cashier and assistant trust officer. 

The Centkal Bank 

The latest financial concern seeking recognition in the 
banking field is the Central Bank, under the direction of two 
bright and well known young men who graduated from the 
Union National and proceeded to establish their own standing 
in the financial arena. The Central Bank is chartered under 
the laws of the State of California and is, therefore, not a 
National bank. 

H. L. Mouat was first president of this bank and William 
H. Magee cashier. Mouat died in November, 1917, and was 
succeeded by William H. Magee. Other directors are M. P. 
Green, S. Herbert Jenks, J. J. Mitchell, A. T. Newcomb and 
W. N. Van Nuys. Its assistant cashier is E. M. Jones. 

It opened its door for business July 17th, 1916, and in its 
first twelve months of effort its deposits have gone to $537,- 
302.72, with total resources of $610,241, truly a satisfying 
business for this young institution, and proving the value of 
good reputations in banking circles. 

The Citizens Savings 

Is situated on the corner of Colorado Street and Marengo 
Avenue in the most conspicuous building in the city, towering 
above its elevated corner twelve stories and standing like a 
monument of prosperity — as it is. 

This building is the property of the Citizens Savings Bank, 
which in four years has become a strong factor in the finan- 
cial institutions of Pasadena. It was organized October 15th, 
1912, with a capital stock of $100,000. 

It opened its doors in more humble quarters at the same 
location January 31st, 1913, with a board of directors con- 
sisting of W. H. Hubbard, who had been an officer of the 
Crown City Bank; Charles W. Durand, Henry T. Hazard, 
Aaron Cover, M. Vilas Hubbard, E. D. Barry and George 
Mallory. W. H. Hubbard was chosen as president, Hazard 
and Durand vice presidents and M. Vilas Hubbard cashier. 
Its growth of business has been notable and its popularity 
conformable to its growth. On September 14th, 1917, its 
deposits were — commercial and savings combined — $942,- 



254 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

067.28. Its present officers are : W. H. Hubbard, president ; 
H. T. Hazard, vice president ; C. W. Durand, vice president ; 
M. Vilas Hnbbard, vice president; Dr. W. C. Watson, vice 
president; F. J. Kennett, cashier. In addition the following 
are directors: E. D. Barry, Thomas Bradley and John C. 
Coy. 

The Pasadena National 
(National Bank of Pasadena) 

Pasadena had two banks in 1886 as has been related, but 
this did not seem to interfere with an ambition for another, 
although there was then less than 4,000 population and no 
industrial resources of consequence. 

I believe George A. Swartwout and Dr. William Converse 
were largely instrumental in organizing the Pasadena 
National Bank, in the year 1886. Its capital was $50,000, 
and its officers were: I. W. Hellman (of the Farmers and 
Merchants Bank of Los Angeles), President; E. F. Spence 
(of the First National of the same city), vice president; and 
Gr. A. Swartwout, cashier. Other directors were Dr. William 
Converse and C. H. Converse. 

It will be seen that Los Angeles banks were the factors, 
financially, in this institution. This bank did a fair share of 
business, but Swartwout indulged in the boom that followed 
and also a railway scheme and went broke. Arthur Conger 
succeeded him in January, 1889. Then T. P. Lukens, who 
had graduated from zanjero to real estate, came into the 
banking field, and succeeded Conger as cashier (Conger had 
gone over to the First National as cashier), and so continued 
for a time. In 1895 the bank secured a room at the corner 
of Eaymond Avenue and Colorado Street and moved therein. 
At this time Lukens became president and William Stanton 
vice president, with the following additional directors : Gr. 
Eoscoe Thomas, L. P. Hansen, James Cambell, E. E. Jones 
(cashier). Under this management the business was con- 
tinued with growing prosperity. The deposits, which had 
sunk to $63,000 after the boom, grew to $200,000. Later 
George F. Kernaghan purchased Lukens ' interests and became 
president, while Charles A. Smith became cashier. In Octo- 
ber, 1900, Henry Newby and E. J. Pyle organized a syndicate 
and purchased the control. The deposits had by this time 
dwindled to $135,000, and financial conditions in the city were 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 255 

not very encouraging; bnt the new men were ambitious and 
plucky. Both Newby and Pyle had received their training 
in banking business in the First National. H. W. Hines was 
another stockholder, as were also Dr. J. C. Fraser, B. 0. 
Kendall, C. J. Willett, James Clarke, M. E. Wood and L. 
Perrin. Fraser was elected president, Newby cashier, and 
Pyle assistant cashier. Thus organized, the bank began its 
new career forward until the annual election in January, 1901, 
when Fraser retired and was succeeded by Perrin as presi- 
dent. The capital stock was then increased from $50,000 to 
$100,000. The new blood had begun to tell and the bank 
became a popular institution. In April, 1905, Henry Newby 
was elected president and E. J. Pyle succeeded him as cashier. 
At this time the deposits had grown to $1,000,000 and the 
race was going fast. But the panic of 1907 came and demor- 
alized the banking business, as everyone knows. The Pasa- 
dena National had encouraged a liberal policy. It felt the 
changed conditions at once and anxiety reigned as depositors 
day by day withdrew their balances. The clearing house 
plan of assisting with certificates was resorted to and saved 
many banks in that critical period. The Pasadena National 
had a narrow escape, but by this good fortune weathered the 
storm, its officers sitting upon the safety valve. But marvel- 
ous, indeed, was the rehabilitation that ensued. From low 
ebb of about $100,000 back again to $1,000,000— inside of two 
years — was something to be proud of for any bank! This 
was its history, and it was this that brought congratulations 
to Messrs. Newby and Pyle. But there was a change pending 
in the financial horizon. J. B. Coulston, who came into the 
Pasadena banking field via the East Pasadena Grown City 
Bank, on March 14th, 1907, through purchasing the control 
thereof, and becoming its president, was ambitious for larger 
spheres of action than could be afforded in the suburbs, and 
moved his little bank to the corner of Marengo Avenue, in 
November, 1907. In January, 1908, the stockholders of the 
Crown City Bank purchased the control of the Bankers ' 
Saving Bank, electing Harry Shlaudeman president thereof, 
and on July 1st moved the business to the Marengo Avenue 
corner. Then, at the annual meeting of the Bankers' Savings 
Bank, March 22d, 1909, Coulston succeeded Shlaudeman as 
president of this bank, and the name was changed to the 
Crown City Savings Bank. In the meantime — March 9th, 



256 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

1909 — the Crown City Bank had received its charter as a 
National bank and became the Crown City National Bank. 

More forward movement. In September, 1911, a consoli- 
dation of the Crown City Savings and the American Bank 
and Trust Company took effect with W. H. Hubbard, presi- 
dent; J. B. Coulston, vice president; and Vilas Hubbard, cash- 
ier. Then in July, 1912, Coulston purchased Hubbard's 
interests and succeeded him as head of that bank also. In 
September of the same year the name was changed to Crown 
City Savings and Trust Company. 

Still another absorption. J. B. Coulston, in May, 1914, 
purchased a controlling interest in the National Bank of 
Commerce, and in June, 1912, a still greater event in banking 
circles occurred when a merger was effected between the 
National Bank of Commerce, the Crown City National and 
the Pasadena National under the name of the National Bank 
of Pasadena. This was done by changing the name of the 
National Bank of Commerce to the National Bank of Pasa- 
dena, increasing the capital stock to $300,000 and purchasing 
the assets of the National Bank and the Crown City. It was 
a concentration of capital and a long-headed business move 
which gave to J. B. Coulston and his associates a fine finan- 
cial institution and prominent place in the banking field of 
Pasadena. Coulston was elected president of the bank and 
Henry Newby president of the board of trustees. Newby 
eventually sold his interests to Coulston and retired from the 
banking business — with a host of well wishers and a rare 
personal popularity behind him. 

The business of the National Bank of Pasadena is con- 
ducted in its own splendid building, erected in 1913 at a cost 
of $150,000 — exclusive of lot, which is on lease. No finer 
equipped bank building may be found than this. The asso- 
ciated Crown City Trust and Savings is conveniently housed 
in a room adjoining the parent institution. Deposits Septem- 
ber 14, 1917, $3,132,568.62. The officers are as follows : J. B. 
Coulston, president ; Edward J. Pyle, vice president ; Charles 
N. Post, vice president ; Charles A. Goodyear, vice president ; 
J. H. Woodworth, vice president ; L. A. Boadway, vice presi- 
dent ; Leon V. Shaw, cashier ; Herbert C. Holt, assistant cash- 
ier ; W. B. Scoville, assistant cashier. 





WALTER RAYMOND 

Pasadena's first great hotel 
proprietor 



CHAPTER XXXII 
Hotels 

1 must, indeed, be a sorry 

iconoclast who does not 

agree that the hotels of 

Pasadena have been, and 

are, a very important factor 
in its material and also its social prog- 
ress and importance. The material 
part is the money brought into quick 
circulation; for the tourist and the 
hotel guest is a generous spender, 
being generally both able and willing. 
Socially the hotel has been not only a 
center of affairs but leading in the 
pleasurable events which bring 
together desirable people. The winter 
guests must be provided with amusement and pleasures as 
well as substantial things, for they are here for rest, recupera- 
tion or dalliance, as the case may be. Pasadena's hotels have 
catered to the needs of their guests, and this attention and 
the outdoor diversions always at hand, also the splendid boule- 
vards and country highways that tempt the automobile enthu- 
siast, have given fair fame to our city and attracted thousands 
to test its hospitalities. The wealthy traveler is sometimes a 
captious critic who scrutinizes the hotel closely. Are the beds 
comfortable, the rooms cosy, the piazzas alluring and the menu 
sufficient to satisfy his gustatory cravings ? And he demands 
mental and physical excitement also. Modest though the 
traveler may be at home, when abroad he becomes at times 
exacting and hard to please — a vexing problem to the diplo- 
matic boniface who attends his censorious demands. The rea- 
son is plain ; he is cut off from the grind of his exacting daily 
rounds. His regulation routine he has left back home with 
the other things that complete each twenty-four hours. He 
yearns for the excitement, the daily draft upon his nerve 
resources. The hiatus must be filled with something stren- 
uous until he "settles down" and becomes soothed and con- 



257 



17 



258 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

tented by the hypnotism of sunshine and the magic of Cali- 
fornia air. So it has become the problem of the capable hotel 
man, to change the trend of mind in man and woman cut off 
from their customary daily stimulus of business and social 
recreation so as to bring to them comfort and contentment. 
Pasadena's hotels have been foremost in a well-contested field 
in doing this. She may count her successes easily. 

Pasadena's First Hotel 

not a "caravanserai," not a " palace," but a humble inn for 
plain people. 

The first hotel, like the first house, first church and first 
school in the Indiana Colony, was modest and unassuming, as 
hotels go. Located on South Marengo Avenue, it bade wel- 
come to few guests on account of location and on account of 
the fact that there were few guests to welcome. The first 
hotel in Pasadena was called The Lake Vineyard House. It 
was built in 1880 in an orange grove by one Griswold, who 
conducted it for two years, and then sold it to Isaac Banta, 
a man of some peculiar characteristics, who had accumulated a 
modest fortune in Ohio, and had moved to Pasadena to enjoy 
it. Banta soon discovered that his house was too far away 
from traffic to encourage business, so he bought of Dr. and 
Mrs. Carr two and a half acres on the corner of Colorado 
Street and Fair Oaks Avenue and on this built The Los 
Angeles House, a three-story frame structure, somewhat pre- 
tentious, costing about $15,000. This was in the summer of 
1883, and the writer well remembers the remarkable industry 
shown by Banta in that summer as he labored early and late 
about that building. This was, in fact, the first hotel built 
in Pasadena that had any real pretensions as such. 

When the property was sold to a syndicate the buildings 
were sold to be removed. Jack Defriez bought them and 
moved the hotel building to a lot on the corner of Delacy and 
Colorado Street, where it remained for a number of years and 
was removed to give place to Clune's Theatre Building. 
Defriez made a handsome profit from this speculation, but I 
must tell how he lost in another deal. On the hotel lot was 
also a barn which he, as he believed, also purchased with the 
hotel. Jack, after making the investment, went over to Cata- 
lina Island "to cool ofr." When he returned he went down 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 259 

to look at his recent acquisition, when to his astonishment he 
discovered the barn had fled during his absence ! After con- 
siderable inquiry he found his barn resting snugly upon 
another lot. Then he was informed that a certain worthy 
gentleman had decided he needed that barn and just confis- 
cated it. He kept it, too, for Jack took it as a good joke on 
himself and let it go at that. Those were fine, easy days ! 

The Webstek Hotel 

It was just prior to the time when work began upon the 
Los Angeles House that T. E. Martin of San Jose visited 
Pasadena intent upon investing some of his savings, and 
decided that prospects were good for a hotel or rooming house, 
combined with business rooms. He accordingly entered into 
negotiations with Alexander F. Mills, who owned fifteen acres 
on the southwest corner of Colorado Street and Fair Oaks 
Avenue, for one acre on that corner. Mills' price was just 
$1,000. Martin offered that price, less the usual commission 
— $50 — as the trade was not handled by an agent. It required 
a week's diplomatic dickering for them to come to terms, but 
finally Mills made the allowance and Martin began the con- 
struction of a two and a half -story frame building on the cor- 
ner, finishing it in a few months. This was opened by E. C. 
Webster as a hotel and rooming house in 1884, the lower floor 
being used as a dining room and for store purposes. Later 0. 
T. Nay succeeded Webster and conducted the hotel ; then for a 
time it was Nay & Willard. This property was sold to Gen- 
eral Edwin Ward in 1886 for $17,000, giving Martin a profit 
of about $5,000. I would estimate the present value of this 
land alone at $200,000, perhaps more. 

The Webster — later under Ward's ownership changed to 
The Grand Hotel — was the scene of many affairs in the days 
of young Pasadena, and was the conspicuous center of activi- 
ties for several years. The building, which was moved to 
make way for a modern building, now stands, remodeled, on 
the northwest corner of Valley Street and Fair Oaks Avenue 
upon the foundation originally laid- for the first Y. M. C. A. 
Building. 

The Vista del Akkoyo 

In 1882 Mrs. Emma C. Bangs purchased a plot of several 
acres running back from Orange Grove Avenue to the Arroyo, 



260 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

and built upon it a rather pretentious building, for the time, 
in which she conducted a semi-public boarding house and hotel. 
Its reputation brought to it winter tourists and travelers who 
desired a retired place of residence, and year by year its repu- 
tation grew. In 1903 Mrs. Bangs died and the property was 
purchased by the Crown City Investment Company, which for 
a year conducted the hotel. 

In 1905 the Vista del Arroyo Company (a corporation) 
purchased the property and began making improvements, and 
from time to time adding, by purchase, to the original proper- 
ties, which now aggregate about seven acres. Six bungalows 
and six annexes, together with the original hotel building, now 
constitute the Vista del Arroyo. C. C. Blacker is president 
of the corporation, E. J. Blacker vice president, and H. M. 
Fowler secretary and treasurer. H. M. Fowler is also gen- 
eral manager. Located as it is on the Arroyo bluff, here is 
found a beautiful retreat away from the din of streets and 
marts of trade, yet convenient enough to be desirable. From 
the Arroyo side guests may enjoy the picturesque landscape 
of the Arroyo and the hills beyond, the bridge as a northern 
sky line, and the privilege of California's magnificent sunsets 
every day. Year by year this retreat has grown in favor with 
tourists, and has obtained a most desirable list of regular 
winter guests and constantly returning patrons. 

The Raymond 

The Raymond was the first great hotel built in Pasadena. 
About it will ever cluster pleasant memories which will, to the 
old settler at least, carry him back to sentimental days, with 
their scent of wild flowers, of the fresh-turned soil, and the 
picturesque sweep of valley and mesa, much of it unbroken by 
the ploughshare. Walter Raymond, at the time of the incep- 
tion of the hotel idea, was of the firm of Raymond & Whitcomb, 
well known Boston excursion purveyors ; and had, in pursuance 
of his calling, come on several occasions to Southern Califor- 
nia. He had found difficulty in obtaining proper accommoda- 
tions for his excursion guests and from this difficulty grew the 
idea of building a good, high-class hotel somewhere in the 
South and conducting it in conjunction with his excursion 
itinerary. Opportunely and coincident with Raymond's idea, 
the San Gabriel Valley Railroad had been projected from Los 
Angeles out into the fields and vineyards of the valley of the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 261 

San Gabriel. The president of that enterprise, J. F. Crank had 
an eye open for any auxiliary business that might accrue to 
it ; hence, when approached by Walter Eaymond upon the sub- 
ject of a proper hotel site, Crank, with characteristic enter- 
prise, gave him carte blanche to pick out a site anywhere along 
the projected road and he would hand it to him as a gift. It 
did not take very long for Raymond to choose the site whereon 
the Raymond stands. It was then known as " Bacon Hill," 
being part of the Bacon (one time Marengo) ranch. Originally 
Raymond chose twenty-five acres, but found it insufficient and 
had added thirty acres more. Nature seemed to have set the 
hill there for the very purpose that it was now appropriated 
for. Commanding in its view from every side, and historic in 
its traditions, for from the adobe that stands on its southern 
base, once rode the officers of General Pico's staff, when they 
dispersed upon that memorable occasion after deciding upon 
the capitulation of California to Fremont. In that adobe, 
also, lived the first Spanish resident on the San Pasqual 
ranch, one Jose Perez. Raymond did not delay and it was 
not long before he had his prospective manager, A. H. Gluck, 
and his architect, Littlefield, on the ground planning out his 
great hotel enterprise. The hill required grading down thirty- 
four feet to give sufficient area, and the rocky surface had to 
be deplaced with fertile soil to enable flowers and plants to 
grow. In some cases dynamite was used to blast holes for 
tree planting. Pasadena generously donated water as its 
appreciation. Tom Banbury was given the contract, and 
work was begun in November, 1883, upon the hill and con- 
tinued into 1884, despite rainy weather. Unfortunately, 
financial troubles occurred throughout the country and 
involved Raymond for a time. Work was suspended, the men 
discharged and prospects looked gloomy; but in September 
of 1884 everything had been adjusted and work recommenced. 
The extraordinarily wet winter of 1883-84 had seriously inter- 
fered. The story goes that Emmons Raymond, Walter Ray- 
mond's father, looked not with approval upon his son's ambi- 
tions in building a hotel in this vast " wilderness !" This 
impression was confirmed when he arrived in Pasadena one 
day amidst a frightful rainstorm which lasted a week or more. 
But another visit, when the skies smiled like a baby's eyes, 
and the valleys were verdant and alluring, changed the pater's 
view and he vouchsafed the long-withheld approval. Build- 



262 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

ing was begun again, and work continued uninterruptedly 
until finished. On November 17th, 1886, it was formally 
opened amidst a scene of happy felicitations to its indefatiga- 
ble founder. It was a great society event, attended by nearly 
1,500 guests drawn from the whole Southland. Coincident ally 
a great rainstorm swept down from the north on that memora- 
ble evening, and it was a matter of almost swimming to get 
safely home for many of the guests that night. But the hotel 
was finished at last, a great and imposing building perched 
upon its commanding site, a landmark for miles in every 
direction. It cost about $400,000. The grounds were laid 
out by a landscape artist and soon became the Mecca of the 
winter tourist and climate seeker. World-wide travelers say 
that the view from Eaymond Hill is one of the beautiful sights 
of the world. The mountain background, where splendid 
peaks rise a mile high, the sweep of green valley, with its 
groves, its gardens and attractive houses to the south and 
east and west, and far away the gleam of the blue waters of 
the ocean, fill up a magnificent picture. Certainly the guests 
of the Eaymond obtain a fine bonus above the material com- 
forts otherwise vouchsafed them there. 

The Eaymond Bubns 

On a fatal afternoon — Easter Sunday of 1895 — smoke was 
seen to creep out in snaky spirals from an upper cornice of 
the west wing. Then came the licking tongues of fire and the 
alarm boomed out that the great hotel was burning. There 
was no adequate protection, and in a few hours nothing 
remained of the hotel but a mass of black ashes and a confused 
pile of twisted iron rods and tottering chimneys. It was a 
melancholy ending to a pleasant prospect, and brought with 
it sorrow and gloom to the people of Pasadena who had 
pinned enthusiastic prophecies upon the Eaymond. Need we 
say that to its owner also the disaster was almost overwhelm- 
ing. The financial loss seemed irreparable and the disap- 
pointment tremendous. 

The New Eaymond 

But Walter Eaymond was not one to demur overlong at 
"the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." Instead, 
with Yankee energy and grit, he bestirred himself in short 
order and began to lay plans for a new and even better Eay- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 263 

mond. T. W. Parkes was commissioned to draw plans, and 
it was not long before the grounds were cleared of their debris 
and work begun. Today it stands majestic and conspicuous — 
not only conspicuous as an object that catches the transient 
vision, but as an achievement to the unconquerable energy of 
a man harassed by losses and calamity, who had happily 
wrought success from them. The present Raymond contains 
400 rooms, and with its fine grounds and spacious piazzas, 
attracts year after year its regular clientele of guests to whom 
it spells home and home privileges such as are found in few 
hotels. 

The Carlton 

I have endeavored to recite the history of Pasadena's 
hotels in the order of their building, which brings us next to 
The Carlton, once occupying the Exchange Block. When the 
Exchange syndicate, Webster, Ward and others, purchased 
the property now covered by the building so named, it was 
designed to complete a first-class business hotel, such as the 
town seemed to demand. Activities in real estate were bring- 
ing in many people, and a new hotel was prospectively profita- 
ble. Webster set the pace and his associates confided in his 
wisdom; that was easy then, for Webster had, with Midas- 
like hand, turned all things into gold. So the Carlton was 
built and it was opened in 1886. The Harper & Reynolds 
Company's hardware store occupied one room on its ground 
floor. The Pasadena National Bank another, and the Alex- 
ander Cruickshank dry goods store still another. Cruick- 
shank's store became "The Bon Accord' ' later, under H. R. 
Hertel's capable management, and made for Hertel a record 
of honorable business energy. 

The Carlton became a thriving and prosperous house, 
although it became involved in the anti-liquor fight which 
ensued. Many events occurred under its roof that demon- 
strated the conditions of the times. One of these was a ban- 
quet given to Webster, then in the climax of his success and 
popularity, in 1888. It was no "orgy," just a jovial party of 
boomers, who were in the heyday of their prosperity and 
desired to give vent to their exuberance, good will and good 
nature. When the banquet ended some of Webster's over- 
enthusiastic friends dragged forth a buggy, and placing him 
therein, became for the time beasts of burden (asses?) and 



264 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

dragged him to his domicile, amidst much hilarity. At this 
affair a telegram was handed Webster from Colonel G. G. 
Green, announcing the birth of a daughter at Woodbury, N. J., 
and who, as a talisman of his recently purchased suburb, 
named her Altadena. Mrs. Eobert Neustadt is probably as 
proud of it today as were her warm admirers that night. 

Another scene of hilarity — a sober one, too ! — that occurred 
in the Carlton was the occasion of celebrating the election 
of Benjamin Harrison as president, in 1888. This time it was 
the Harrison Club that gave the affair: a bunch of old-fash- 
ioned republicans such as are seldom seen these unregenerate 
days. Nearly 200 of them there were : eager, combative and 
zealous. Oh, they were the boys to bet on in campaign days ! 
Perhaps, too, there were rooms in the Carlton where facile 
fingers dealt the ubiquitous pasteboards and golden eagles 
mayhap exchanged hands! Who can say? But the Carlton 
fell upon unhappy days, and its fame departed with the other 
transitions of boom times. 

La Pintoresca 

The Painter — or as it became, the La Pintoresca, i. e., the 
picturesque — was built by J. H. Painter and his two sons, 
Alonzo and M. D., in 1887. J. H. Painter had been the part- 
ner of B. F. Ball in the Painter & Ball Tract and had amassed 
much money thereby. A fine and sightly spot in North Pasa- 
dena was selected, and upon it a hotel was built and opened 
for tourist trade in February, 1888, under the management of 
M. D. Painter. The investment cost about $100,000, and pros- 
pered for several years, but was in 1905 sold to others and 
was destroyed by fire December 31st, 1912. The grounds it 
occupied were purchased by the city in 1914 and now comprise 
one of the city's handsome parks, small it is true, but like the 
name it bears, picturesque and beautiful and much appre- 
ciated by the residents of North Pasadena. 

The Green 

The Green was an outcome of the frenzied boom and Ed 
Webster's altitudinous ambition. Webster was the top- 
notcher in enterprise about 1886-87, when ranches were being 
sliced up into town lots. Property owners like Eomayne 
Williams and P. G. Wooster, who fortunately owned 
"ranches" down along the newly opened Baymond Avenue, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 265 

were strictly "in it." Wooster owned the property where 
now stands the Green Hotel and part of Central Park. Wil- 
liams' land lay just south of Wooster 's ; therefore, when came 
the trend of speculation in that direction, Wooster parted with 
some of his land to Webster and Webster started to build a 
hotel on it. To help things along, he also built a depot for 
the Santa Fe on condition that that road would move its office 
from north of Colorado Street, where it then was, to the new 
location. Of course, this being handed a fine new brick depot 
that cost $10,000, situated on a fine lot, all free of charge, the 
Santa Fe people couldn't refuse, and with due modesty and 
kindly feeling moved to the new location. This was in 1887. 
Thus was begun the original edifice, then called the Webster, 
later the Green, Hotel. 

Colonel Green happened into Pasadena one fine day and 
met Andrew McNally and some other congenial spirits. I 
believe William Morgan later joined "the crowd." It didn't 
take Webster long to get these gentlemen interested in Pasa- 
dena, and it was through his efforts that they eventually made 
large investments and became regular winter residents. Then 
Webster ran out of money, and what more natural than that 
he borrow from Green? He did that very thing, and in the 
distressful end, when Webster got a monkey wrench in his 
financial machinery, Green had a two-story unfinished hotel 
on his hands that he did not want. This was in 1891. Mor- 
gan fared likewise, but only drew a smaller building on Ray- 
mond Avenue which still is part of the Morgan estate. 

Green enlarged and improved his purchase and made it a 
high-class hostelry. He built the west wing in the park that 
surrounds it; then buying the Wooster Block on Fair Oaks 
Avenue, and including that in the plant in 1895. J. H. 
Holmes, a brother-in-law of Colonel Green, was made manager 
of the business and brought to it much fame as a high-class 
hotel; for Major Holmes had the "hotel genius," lacking 
which it bodes no man to attempt such an undertaking. These 
two structures, the east and the west wing, are joined, Siamese 
twinlike, by a bridge which spans the thoroughfare between — 
an unique link. Not a "bridge of sighs," indeed, but a cause- 
way to neighborly comity between the dwelling places. The 
Green was conducted by Major Holmes until he became lessee 
of the U. S. Grant Hotel at San Diego. In 1916 the Green 
was leased to D. M. Linnard, who now conducts it as one of 
his trio, and has recreated its former prestige. 



266 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Maryland — My Maryland 

When D. M. Linnard, proprietor, unlocked the doors of 
the Maryland one season a few years ago, then threw the key 
away, it was decreed that nevermore should its doors be 
closed to guests; that, in fact, the hotel season in Pasadena 
was "all the year round.' ' Then the tourist discovered that 
California had a summer climate all its own, a fact heretofore 
overlooked by hotel proprietors. In the effete East, the 
sweltering climate of dog days drove those who were able to 
go into mountain retreats and to the seashore to get the neces- 
sary ozone required for their constitution. California, it was 
now made known, could offer any amount of health giving 
principle and throw in a few advantages. Before the period 
alluded to, winter guests in Pasadena had marked the seasons 
with discriminating pencil upon obtrusive calendars, and, 
being creatures of habit, bethought them that on certain fixed 
dates the time had come to leave behind them the torrid throes 
of summer in Summer Land. The first birds of spring twit- 
tered in the rose-covered pergolas of the Maryland ; and per- 
chance one day, the mercury escaped and climbed to 80 degrees 
on the hotel corridor. This, indeed, thought they, is but a 
prelude to what we may expect — us for back home! Such 
was their inexperience then. But when it was set forth by an 
enterprising hotel proprietor, with the addition of "summer 
rates" as a side appeal, that here in California, tropic periods 
might pass unheeded and uncared for, a new distraction was 
offered to the ennuied hotel guest, and the revelation came 
that Southern California did offer tempting enticements to 
those who cared to enjoy it. It has thus spread abroad that 
in Pasadena one may find surcease from sweltering climate 
and opportunity for summer recreation, second to none. Thus 
taught, spring departures were delayed longer and longer, 
and expanded into an all year round treatment. At least, 
there was the mountains right by, and the seashore within an 
hour or so, if necessity called. 

And so the Maryland has become an all year round hotel, 
different from seasonal hotels. The builder of the Mary- 
land's first unit was Colin Stuart, a man of practical mind, 
yet who, for sentimental reasons, gave this child of his 
hands the name of his home state, Maryland, because it was 
both beautiful and patrician. It was well called, and its ring- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 267 

ing appellation has sounded musically in words and song ever 
since. The land was bought in 1902 and the first unit of the 
house built that year. When completed and furnished Stuart 
conducted it himself. Then D. M. Linnard, whose talents had 
been smothering in the La Casa Grande for a year or so, pur- 
chased, through the Maryland Hotel Company, a corporation 
of which he was a large stockholder, the entire property. This 
was in 1903. A new wing was added, some bungalows and 
lots lying contiguous to the initial property purchased, and 
a general plan of enlargement begun, which has never since 
ceased. 

Linnard had been just preening his managerial feathers 
at the Casa Grande. At the Maryland there was room to 
expand and he was the opportunist of hotel men who seized 
opportunities. Under his management the Maryland grew in 
reputation and expanded in size. For one thing, its doors 
were always open to the city's guests, when under the auspices 
of the Board of Trade or other catering hand they must be 
shown its welcoming hospitalities. This is a proverbial repu- 
tation for the Maryland, and in these corridors and in these 
piazzas thousands of strangers have been extended the glad 
hand amidst the good cheer which abounded. In that great 
dining room, amidst its palms and garlands, many noted men 
have been banqueted and listened to. 

It is less attractive to us that in its history this auspicious 
era should be brought to sudden halt on the evening of April 
18th, 1914, when a fire broke out, and despite every effort, 
destroyed two of the three wings and seriously damaged the 
other. It was calamitous, indeed, to Linnard and his asso- 
ciates, and it was a source of solicitude to the people of Pasa- 
dena, for its permanent efTacement would be a serious blow to 
the prosperous life of the city. There was a day or two for 
meditation on the part of D. M. Linnard, and a serious contem- 
plation of the financial situation. It must be a severe struggle 
to rehabilitate these ruined walls and would require much 
money. Yet the problem was solved, and Linnard emerged 
from his distressful meditations an active and potent figure 
whose motto was, "Never surrender!" In the meantime 
guests were being cared for in cottages and bungalows, and 
strictly speaking, the hotel was not "closed" to patrons. 

It was not long before reconstruction was begun and on 
Thanksgiving Day of the same year — 1914 — the newer and 



268 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

finer Maryland opened its doors once more to an enthusiastic 
and approving throng. Surely, a rapid recuperation ! 

Myron Hunt was the architectural genius who wrought out 
this splendid transformation — these broad, sweeping piazzas, 
these comfort-breeding nooks and corners and the strikingly 
original and effective pergola front under which merchandis- 
ing may be conducted amidst drooping vines, and pavements 
bordered with daffodils and pansies. 

The Maryland covers eight acres of lawn and flower gar- 
den, and besides the main structure has thirty bungalows, 
where one may live in quiet seclusion a few feet from the 
busy halls — yet remote and undisturbed — if he so desires. 
Thus we find here a combination of comfort and efficiency 
unsurpassed. 

Some one, perhaps Eleanor Gates, with fitting poetic fancy, 
has termed this the "Maryland Bungalowland. ' ' Standing 
in the main corridor one looks to the left through a long vista 
of dining room to the celebrated Palm Room beyond, where 
1,500 persons can find comfortable seating room — the finest 
audience room in the city. Gazing through the crystal walls 
which enclose the entire north end of the corridor, the exclam- 
ation involuntarily arises, "Oh, Maryland, My Maryland !" 
For here is a picture so charming and unique in hotel experi- 
ence, that superlatives rise unconsciously to one's lips. Across 
that spread of velvet lawn there is hint of tiled roof and gable, 
and also is caught glimpses of white fagades through leafy 
vista and drooping flowers. Walls, massed in purple flower- 
ing bougainvillea, and pergolas with rose vine coverings, are 
fitting frame to the distant purple mountains. These are the 
invitations that tempt the winter visitor to come, and the 
casual guest to linger. Piping robin and trilling mocking- 
bird add to the pleasing illusion that one has been trans- 
ported to Paradise with its magic gardens of perpetual bloom. 

So the Maryland is a city hotel, with country privileges. 

The Wentwokth 

General Wentworth, a hotel owner in the "White Mountains, 
came to Pasadena upon the invitation of Walter Raymond, 
to manage that hotel during the seasons when his own was 
closed. He could in this way go back and forth each season 
without interference with his own affairs. When the Ray- 
mond was burned Wentworth was engaged by M. D. Painter 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 269 

to manage the La Pintoresca, and it was during this interval 
that he conceived the plan of bnilding for himself a hotel in 
Pasadena. He consulted W. R. Staats and interested the 
Staats Company so that it undertook to finance the proposi- 
tion. The Hotel Wentworth Company was the outcome. 

A site containing twenty-six acres was procured at Oak 
Knoll and building begun. It was originally intended that 
the building should be of frame with stucco exterior, but 
the plan was changed to reinforced concrete. This entailed 
an expense of perhaps $200,000 additional, and involved 
the company in financial deep waters. The plan had 
been to sell stock and give a bonus of bonds to stock pur- 
chasers. Work ceased, pending adjustment, and a temporary 
roof placed after it had gone up four stories. In this con- 
dition Wentworth partially opened the house for guests, hop- 
ing that readjustment would follow. But its fortunes had 
fallen and pressing creditors brought about a receivership and 
court proceedings. More than $1,000,000 had been spent and 
Wentworth sunk his little fortune in the venture and forsook 
California. 

The deserted hotel was closed and a keeper placed in 
charge until in 1914, when the property was sold to Henry E. 
Huntington and was to be known thereafter as 

The Huntington 

Huntington employed Myron Hunt to finish the structure, 
which was rapidly done. In the season of 1914-15 it was 
reopened, this time fully completed, and under the manage- 
ment of D. M. Linnard, to become later one of his triumvirate 
of Southern California hotels. The Huntington is a com- 
manding structure, as it stands amidst its gardens and its 
orange groves. From afar its appearance is a reminder of a 
great castle or chateau, and one may easily imagine those 
walls facades, battlements and bastions — frowning and 
impregnable. From its roof or windows the view is mag- 
nificent and sweeping. 

A Hotel Tkiumvirate 

It has been stated that in 1916 D. M. Linnard of Maryland 
fame leased the Green and was manager of the Huntington. 
In 1917 he formed a new company, with the title of the Cali- 
fornia Hotel Company, with a capital of $2,000,000. This 



270 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 




THE LINNARD HOTELS 

Top, The Huntington — Next below, The Green — Next below, The Maryland — At the 
bottom, A Lane of Bungalows — D. M. Linnard in left center 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



271 



corporation, the majority of which stock is owned by Linnard. 
purchased the Green Hotel and also the Huntington, thus 
bringing under one ownership three great hostelries. It was 
a daring undertaking and required business brains. D. M. 
Linnard has become the Napoleon of bonifaces of the Pacific 
Coast. Not only has he Pasadena's three largest hotels dan- 
gling at his belt, but, in 1917, he also leased the Fairmont, 
San Francisco 's finest, an imposing marble building that caps 
Nob Hill; thus a fourth hotel project has been added to Lin- 
nard's chain, and his activities will, in these expansions, find 
fitting exercise and his genius a splendid field. Perhaps the 
time may arrive when the Fairmont, too, will form a fourth 
picture in Napoleon Linnard's own hotel group. 





CHAPTER XXXIII 

a flee and a flee department hlstory of its beginning 

in Pasadena 

as the city grew apace many things were deemed desirable, not 
the least op these being pire protection. thus it came about 
that a fire department was acquired. its first members and 
its first apparatus. 

COW, perhaps a brindle at that, receives credit for 
burning up a goodly part of a great city, and thus 
from incineration came a reincarnation and a greater 
prosperity. The Hibernian lady who owned the 
bovine didn't dream of the far-reaching results of 
the conjunction of her " bossy" and a carelessly set kerosene 
lamp. Neither did the two urchins who, meandering down 
Fair Oaks Avenue upon a November night in the year 1885 
imagine the results of their playful, if cruel, pastime of shy- 
ing a stone or two at a couple of Chinamen who were indus- 
triously engaged in rejuvenating garments for Pasadena's 
foremost citizens. 

A kerosene lamp stood within the window of the "washee" 
house where the "chinks" labored, and proved a fair shot for 
the unerring aim of bad boys. The lamp was broken, the 
wash house set afire, and the Chinamen ran shouting into the 
street. A crowd soon gathered, and after a hard fight with 
the flames, during which Johnny Mills, in a desperate frenzy 
almost chopped down an adjoining building to stop its 
advance, the fire was subdued. It required just this to 
incense some enraged citizens who objected to the coloniza- 
tion of "chinks" in the heart of the village, and before long 
the cry went up, "Hang them ! Hang the yellow devils ! " A 
rush was made for Mills Alley, where they swarmed, living 
in cheap shacks, and things looked squally for John for a 
time. The Chinamen were nearly frightened to death, and 
there was some reason for their fears. "The Chinese must 
go," the slogan of Dennis Kearney and his sand lotters in 
San Francisco, had prejudiced men against these docile 
yellow boys about that time. Cooler heads prevailed over 

272 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 273 

the irate ones, and when Tom Banbury promised to see 
that every Chinaman was removed and provided for by next 
day, good sense and good humor prevailed. And by next 
day not a Chinaman could be seen anywhere! so thoroughly 
scared were they. Banbury kept his word, and the obnoxious 
"washee" men moved down towards the Raymond Hill, 
where they have, mostly, remained ever since. This fire, 
inconsequent in itself, produced two important results; it 
drove the Chinese out of the center, and it brought about the 
organization of a fire department, or at least its beginning. 

The first meeting to effect this object took place in 1885, 
but no material progress was made, lack of money being the 
greatest obstacle in the way, there being then no city organiza- 
tion. No less than $1,000 was thought necessary for a mere 
hook and ladder system. So in spite of several meetings 
nothing was actually done until the city became incorporated 
and an organization effected under its authority and with its 
money. A resolution providing for a fire department with 
hook and ladder equipment was passed by the trustees. This 
was in October, 1887. 

Bob Hentig, a plumber, was made "chief" of the new 
organization at the handsome stipend of $10 monthly. There 
was to be a hose company in addition to the hook and ladder, 
and there were to be twelve firemen in each company who 
were to be paid $20 per month each. Of course these men 
were not expected to devote their entire time to sitting around 
and waiting for a conflagration, but pursued their usual avo- 
cations. When an alarm occurred the apparatus came on a 
run by Colorado Street and Fair Oaks Avenue, where it picked 
up its " company/ ' they scampering for that point when the 
alarm sounded. 

Here is a roster of the first volunteers : Robert Hentig, 
chief; Peter Steil, J. W. Buttner, J. D. Johns, E. P. Dickey, 
George Draper, W. B. Mosher, N. Henderson, L. Crosby, C. A. 
Hughes, J. S. Mills, A. Butterworth, Ed Brown, J. M. Cracken, 
E. A. Russel, A. W. Lewis, W. Keys, F. L. Johnson, S. McDan- 
iels, George Johnson, G. F. Farar, Harry Haskins, George 
Brown, T. W. Jeffers. Johnson is, I believe, still in this 
service. 

The first apparatus was received and tried out in May, 
1888. A regular association was effected, J. S. Mills elected 
president and J. D. Jones secretary. This was in June. Soon 



274 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

thereafter ' l Pete ' ' Steil was elected fire chief . Steil had been 
in trouble with the authorities, being charged with keeping a 
diminutive porker, with visual obscuration, commonly known 
as a " blind pig." Pete kept a restaurant. This being a 
capital crime — almost — therefore trouble brewed, and the fire 
chief was not confirmed in office by the straight-laced trustees. 
Eighteen of the volunteers resigned on account of this trouble. 
So it was all over with Peter Steil. Then J. D. Jones was 
selected as chief and served until September 10th, 1889, being- 
succeeded by "Bob" Hentig. In 1889 a Silsby engine was 
purchased, arriving on July 6th, 1889, much to the joy of 
the jolly fire boys, who never got tired of polishing up its shin- 
ing silver and steel works. In honor of the event the engine 
was christened M. M. Parker, who at the time was president 
of the board of trustees. H. H. Hillier was the first engineer, 
being appointed on July 20th, serving only one month, being 
succeeded by George Sanborn. The engine was housed in a 
building on Delacy Street and the horses kept in Wiley & 
Greeley's stable close by. In 1889 — December 3d — the Day- 
ton Street engine house was completed, and the apparatus 
moved thereto. A. S. Turbett succeeded Hentig as chief, and 
on January 4th, 1890, George Greeley was made assistant to 
Turbett. Turbett has continued faithfully to identify himself 
with the fire department ever since that date. Up to 1894 
but two or three men were employed continuously, but in that 
year additional men were deemed necessary and Avere engaged. 
Turbett continued as chief until 1901, when A. M. Clifford, who 
was at the time engineer for the department, was appointed 
chief and has successfully filled that position ever since. F. V. 
Hovey was appointed assistant to the chief and remained in 
that position until 1906. As the city grew new apparatus and 
quarters for them were added and additional employees 
engaged. Now the fire department consists of one steamer in 
use (the original steamer is held in reserve) ; five gasoline 
combination pump and hose apparatus; four gasoline com- 
bination chemical and hose, and one gasoline, chemical; one 
aerial ladder truck (automobile); one horse, hose; and one 
horse, chemical — a total of fourteen apparatus in use.* 

These are housed in six houses, located in different sections 
convenient for neighborhood calls. Pasadena has been hap- 



* Since this was written the horses have been eliminated and auto service 
substituted. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 275 

pily exempt from disastrous fires with the exception of three 
hotel fires — the Raymond, La Pintoresca and the Maryland. 
Of course there are smaller losses and frequent alarms, but 
no serious ones with the above exceptions. As a result of the 
substantial protection the fire underwriters have given Pasa- 
dena a reasonable rate of insurance and have profited by their 
risk also. The Underwriters' Report for 1915-16 shows that 
the total number of fires during that period was 169 ; value of 
property involved, $1,418,000, and total loss but $12,995 — a 
fine record indeed! 

Police Depaktment 

The first police officer appointed for the city of Pasadena 
was George W. Dunmore, appointed by the recently elected 
board of trustees. This appointment was made July 10th, 
1886. The present force consists of forty-two men and offi- 
cers, with Walter S. Mclntyre chief and L. N. Odell captain. 
No complaint is made of the "force." It is a small one for 
the territory to be patrolled. Commissioner Harley F. Newell 
is the guardian of the public and the safety of the citizens, 
and is thu,s ex-officio head of the police department. 




CHAPTER XXXIV 

The Public Libraky 




HE visitor who wanders, meditatively, within the 
doors of the Public Library, and contemplates the 
great stacks of books there crowding every avail- 
able space; noting, too, the stream of patrons 
passing in and out, and the industry of the young 
women employees; must be impressed with the idea that 
Pasadena is a reading community. Here indeed, thinks he, is 
a bookish people; for here upon these crowded shelves are 
61,000 volumes, embracing the best selections within the 
scope of critical judgment and consideration for the many 
tastes of reading people. Yet Pasadena cannot yet cherish 
the illusion that it has a library building, up to date 
architecturally, or in its conveniences. Years ago, it was 
looked upon with much pride — then justified. But since it 
was built and dedicated, July 4th, 1878, the population has 
grown about one thousand per cent and it is now, of course, 
outgrown. It is gratifying to know that public sentiment is, 
if slowly, gravitating toward a substantial and beautiful 
structure, one commensurate with public needs and appealing 
to the highest ideals in library construction. When such 
a sentiment culminates and such a library building is built, 
there must be an art room adjunct, which will form a gallery 
that will accommodate examples of every school of art and 
of every period; for it is known that when such a home is 
provided and safeguarded, many priceless canvases will find 
their way there. Then, there are rare etchings, there are 
priceless wares from foreign lands, products of misty ages 
and of marvelous construction, that await the opportunity 
of safe display where their unmatched beauties may be 
enjoyed by every lover of the beautiful. This is what a new 
and properly constructed library would mean to Pasadena. 
Unfortunately, these facts and the condition of dire need for 
more space for the constant stream of new volumes have not 
yet sufficiently urged themselves upon the minds of the 
public. Efforts were made in the spring of 1917 to obtain a 
bond issue of $250,000 for a new building. Architect Myron 

276 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 277 

Hunt prepared plans that were acceptable to the City Com- 
missioners and the library trustees, which would have given 
the city a magnificent library building. The City Planning 
Association undertook to promote the project, and by its 
individual members performed good work in its behalf. But 
the selected site for the new building created objection and 
indecision. Also, the creation of a Civic Center, of which the 
proposed library was to be the initial unit, had not been 
fully determined in many minds. These disturbing factors 
operated against a most desirable and much needed project 
and deferred it. 

But advocates of a fine library are hopeful that, at a no 
distant future, there will be erected a building beautiful and 
capacious, upon whose shelves will be found an endless array 
of tomes commensurate with the tastes and craving of the 
people who will go there to pay their fealty to them. Of 
course it must be a fitting temple where the classic, and the 
ephemeral, too, may meet and greet and part, upon the com- 
mon plane of generous shelves. Through the crystal dome 
above this great forum will filter the mellow sunshine, glori- 
fying the arena below and illuminating its nooks and corners. 
Poetry and prose, wit and wisdom, science and philosophy, 
should have proper setting. Pasadena should have all. Some 
day the voter will realize that it is economy to spend money 
and thrifty to be extravagant, in some ways. May this be one 
of them. 

To Abbot Kinney of Kineloa Ranch, a neighbor only of 
Pasadena, is due the credit, primarily, of starting the plan 
which resulted in a public library in the then struggling 
village of Pasadena. A lover of books himself, a literary 
dilettante, and a purveyor of benefactions, Abbot Kinney set 
in motion a sentiment, and gave it a practical boost by adding 
money to it — usually the most successful way of proving a 
theory! Meeting our foremost residents from time to time, 
he suggested the idea of a library. As a preliminary, Sher- 
man Washburn, T. P. Lukens, Mrs. Jeanne Carr, and H. N. 
Rust, were invited to listen to Abbot Kinney and agreed with 
his plans. The " Pasadena Library and Village Improvement 
Society, " was the outcome, designed for the purpose indi- 
cated by its title — for it was purposed as well to interest the 
public in those things that tended to the upbuilding and 
beautifying of their village. 



278 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The immediate object, however, was the establishment of 
a public library. It was a regularly incorporated Society, 
incorporated December 26th, 1882, with a capital of $50,000, 
10,000 shares at $5 each, giving the poorest a chance to 
assist in the commendable undertaking. Co-operation was 
the thing desired, hence the small amount required to become 
a real stockholder and popularize the undertaking. The sub- 
scription was opened and headed by Kinney himself with 
a $300 donation. $1000 was ultimately realized in this 
manner, but this was not quite sufficient, even for a beginning. 
Then Fraternal Societies became interested. The A. O. U. W. 
and the Good Templars, jointly, guaranteed $700, to be repaid 
them in the use of a hall in the upstairs of the proposed 
library building. Others donated books, periodicals and 
furniture. The first officers selected were Abbot Kinney, 
President; Mrs. Jeanne C. Carr, Secretary; S. Washburn; 
E. F. Hurlbut; A. R. Hanna; W. H. Wakeley; H. N. Rust 
and Lyman Allen as Directors. 

An "Art Loan" exhibition was made a popular source of 
interest and netted $272 for the fund. A concert, arranged 
by Mrs. S. E. Merritt, who had taken a very active interest in 
the project, netted $118 ; a lecture by H. N. Rust, another addi- 
tion of $21. By this time the directors began to feel justified in 
putting up a building and had plans prepared. In the mean- 
time the public school trustees had leased to the library for 
a term of 20 years, a part of the Central School lot — 100 feet 
frontage on Colorado Street — on the east end of that tract. 
On this lot, in 1884, the first library building was erected — 
a two-story wooden building 22x40 feet in size; the upper 
floor being designed for lodge uses as per agreement with 
the two society subscribers mentioned. This building cost 
$2,300. 

In this the library was duly opened on the 26th of Feb- 
ruary, 1884, with just 329 volumes on its shelves. Mrs. S. E. 
Merritt was selected as librarian and continued to perform 
these duties until April 1st, 1898, when she was succeeded 
by Miss Nellie M. Russ. There being no maintenance fund, 
a charge of 25 cents monthly was made for use of books, when 
taken home. A Citrus Fair, held in March 1886, added about 
$506 to the funds and relieved pressing needs. By this time 
there were 1700 volumes on the shelves — bought and donated 
— mostly donated. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 279 

The library then secured its Colorado Street lot 
for $170, a nominal sum. This was just prior to 
the boom. One year later this lot sold for $10,000, 
placing, at a bound, the library finances in fine shape. But 
this good fortune was yet a year away, and in the interval 
something had to be done. Of course it was up to the enter- 
prising spirits to devise that something. It was the young 
ladies this time. They were Emily Bradley, Allie Freeman, 
Velma Brown and Mrs. Abbot Kinney, assisted, of course, by 
Mrs. Merritt. These ladies secured the willing aid of R. M. 
Furlong, Charles ScharfT and Carl Frese's stringed 
orchestra. A play was put on the Williams Hall stage — the 
"School for Scandal," I believe it was, and very well 
rendered, too, such was the local verdict. To give everyone 
their money's worth, Mrs. Beeson, Miss Gilbert and Mrs. 
Kinney, added some musical numbers, for which they were 
noted, being the popular warblers of the day. Carl Frese's 
orchestra came in for its share of favorable comment as a 
matter of course. 

When the Colorado Street lot was sold, the trustees pur- 
chased a lot on Dayton Street for $1496 and moved the 
old building to it, where it continued in use 'for library 
purposes, pending the erection of a new building. In passing, 
it may be said that this building (with lot) was later sold for 
$2000 and converted into a boarding house, for which purpose 
it still is used. It stands just opposite the Dayton Street 
engine house, and has not been altered in any way externally, 
except by the addition of a porch. 

Propositions were asked for a new lot. Several were 
offered free, but the only one regarded as fulfilling require- 
ments was that offered by Charles Legge, being 100x150 feet 
in size, located at the corner of Raymond Avenue and Walnut 
Street — a part of his home place. The conditions accom- 
panying the offer were that a building to cost not less than 
$25,000, would be built there and completed by January 1st, 
1888, free from any incumbrance. This offer was accepted. 
The Trustees now had a fund of $10,000 derived from the 
sale of the Colorado Street property, and a lot. 

The Trustees at this time were C. T. Hopkins, President ; 
Abbot Kinney, Vice-President; L. C. Winston, Secretary; 
Otto Froelich^ H. N. Rust, Dr. W. F. Channing, C. M. Parker 
and Charles Legge. With commendable optimism, the 



280 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Trustees decided to go ahead with the building, hoping to 
obtain the necessary funds to complete it during its erection. 
A subscription list was started and signed, generally. I 
have this list taken from an old copy of the weekly Star. 
This subscription was made in 1887 and represented the pur- 
chase of shares in the library corporation stock, as then 
organized. The shares were $5.00 each. 

F. M. Hovey $ 95.00 Charles A. Gardner $ 50.00 

Lyman Allen 250.00 T. P. Lukens 500.00 

Henry G. Bennett 200.00 S. Townsend 300.00 

P. G. Wooster 100.00 H. F. Goodwin 250.00 

Ed. L. Farris 200.00 F. J. Woodbury 500.00 

Craig Bros. . . 50.00 O. S. Picher 500.00 

J. "W. Wood 50.00 Edson Turner 100.00 

Wm. Converse 100.00 C. T. Hopkins 1,000.00 

Kerckhoff Cuzner Lumber Justus Brockway 100.00 

Co 500.00 H. H. Visscher 250.00 

J. D. & N. G. Yocnm. . . . 500.00 Charles Ehrenfeld 50.00 

W. E. Cooley 50.00 J. P. Woodbury 500.00 

James Smith 100.00 R. M. Furlong 100.00 

Riggins Bros 50.00 J. W. Hugus 100.00 

B. Tallmadge 100.00 C. S. Martin 100.00 

A. Cruickshank 100.00 L. H. Michener 100.00 

J. F. Crank 100.00 W. T. Vore 20.00 

Dr. T. Nichols 100.00 J. Campbell 50.00 

J. Banbury 100.00 N. P. Conrey 20.00 



Total $6,935.00 

Contracts were let for the exterior walls to the amount of 
over $17,000. Work was begun, but unhappily, the stone and 
brick contractor failed, embarrassing the situation exceed- 
ingly. Adding to its further seriousness, the boom waned 
and some who had subscribed to the fund for the building 
lost their money in the crash, and failed to make good. The 
subscription referred to is here given as signed, but not much 
over one half of it was collected — for the reason mentioned. 
Architect Henry Eidgway was chosen to make the plans, and 
to him is due the credit of designing the present handsome 
building. 

Upon the failure of the contractor, affairs were in a tangled 
shape and work was suspended. Charles Legge, generously 
extended the time limit. A plan was finally agreed upon 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 281 

when all seemed lost. Enterprising citizens agreed to sign 
a joint note for the sum of $6000, which the First National 
Bank agreed to cash. These signers deserve that their names 
be herewith published. They were W. Augustus Ray; J. 
Banbury; R. Williams; James Smith; W. T. Clapp; J. B. 
Corson; J. B. Young; M. Rosembaum; Jos. Wallace; Dr. J. 
M. Radebaugh; H. H. Markham; Butler Tallmadge; W. T. 
Vore; C. M. Skillen; C. H. Rhodes; T. P. Lukens; 0. S. 
Picher; Thos. F. Croft; C. E. Langford; S. Washburn. Thus 
came surcease to immediate trouble, and the work was 
resumed. But it was discovered that even this surcease was 
but temporary, for it was found that the amount was still 
insufficient; in fact, $3000 short of the sum required. 

Then came Miss Anna B. Picher, always a library 
enthusiast, who proposed an "Art Loan" on a larger and 
finer scale than had ever before been undertaken in Southern 
California. It was an ambitious idea, and brilliantly carried 
out by its projector and her aides. This occurred in Feb- 
ruary, 1889, lasting ten days. The incompleted library build- 
ing was transformed into a thing of beauty and historic 
interest. Different epochs in California history were por- 
trayed by specimens of art and wearing apparel of their 
period. Special days were held, such as Mexican Day, 
Chinese Day, Oriental Day, Spanish Day. Demonstrations 
of the habits, costumes, etc., of their countries and periods 
were given in an interesting manner. Senor Don Arturo 
Bandini was prominent and picturesque in his Spanish cos- 
tume, carrying on an old Spanish style " Conversazione, " as 
was stated on the programme. Anyone who remembers the 
gallant Don Arturo will concede his mighty qualifications for 
the part. Costumes owned by old Spanish Californian 
notables, such as Don Antonio Coronel, the Picos, the De 
Bakers and others, were exhibited in all their picturesque 
grandeur. It was a success, artistically and popularly, and 
redounded greatly to the fame of its projectors; yet the net 
financial results were far from being sufficient to aid, greatly, 
the hiatus in the library fund, and once more the project was 
in peril — creditors clamoring for bills unpaid, and funds 
exhausted. Finally, a sheriff's deputy made an official visit 
and seized the premises; the property was sold under the 
hammer and Charles Legge — having had to buy it in for 
self-protection — found himself possessed of a perfectly good 



282 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

library building, although not yet quite finished or habitable ! 
Of course, Charley didn't want any libraries, in fact, was 
eager to dispose of this one. Then was broached the proposi- 
tion of having the city become owner and purveyer. J. B. 
Corson was the man who particularly advocated this plan. 
It was estimated that $8,500 would pay all debts and finish 
the structure. There was objection, of course, as is cus- 
tomary; and there were legal obstacles; but the objections 
were stilled and the legal obstacles overcome by the astute- 
ness of City Attorney Arthur. On January 14th, 1890, the 
voters voted bonds amounting to $8,500 with practical 
unanimity — the second bond issue voted in Pasadena. Thus 
the long struggle was, apparently, after three years' 
endeavor, ended. The library had at last fallen into its 
proper ownership and the vexations of years found an end. 
At this time the Board of Trustees was as follows : Dr. W. F. 
Channing, President; L. C. Winston, Secretary; H. N. Rust; 
S. Washburn; C. F. Holder; J. W. Vandevort; B. M. 
Wotkyns. 

On April 19th, 1890, the city paid off outstanding claims 
and acquired formal title to the property. But the balance 
of the funds voted was still insufficient to pay the whole of 
the $6000 note, and the makers thereof found themselves 
out of pocket the $6000 borrowed. Some of this money was 
recovered, but the borrowers were finally out of pocket $4150 
to show for their civic pride ! 

The City trustees appointed the following as the first 
Board of Library Trustees : J. W. Vandervoort ; Mrs. 
Jeanne C. Carr; C. T. Hopkins; George F. Kernaghan, and 
W. L T . Masters. 

The building, costing $25,000, was completed, and on Sep- 
tember 9th, 1890, its doors were opened to the public. 

It was made an interesting event, addresses being made 
by T. P. Lukens, President of the City Board of Trustees; 
" Father' ' Throop and Abbot Kinney. Mrs. Merritt was 
continued as Librarian, at a salary of $50 per month, and 
Miss Laura B. Packard — now Mrs. George A. Daniels — 
became her assistant at half of that salary. After eight years 
of prosperity — during which the volumes grew from 3000 
to 12,800— Mrs. Merritt resigned (in 1898) and Miss Nellie 
M. Buss, who had succeeded Miss Packard a few months 
previously as assistant, was appointed Librarian April 1st, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 283 




284 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

1898. Mrs. Merritt's long services were appreciated by 
resolutions passed by the Trustees at the time. At this time 
a Board of Trustees were elected under the city's new 
charter. They were as follows: S. Washburn (incumbent), 
C. M. Parker (incumbent), G. A. Gibbs, Dr. J. E. Janes and 
J. W. Wood. Washburn resigned on May 2d, 1913, having 
served since the beginning of the library — a period of 31 
years — continuously. 

Miss Anna B. Meeker served on the Board (as its Sec- 
retary) in 1901-02 and Miss Mida F. Webb in the same 
capacity in 1915-16. Prof. W. H. Holland also served as a 
member and as a member of the Advisory Board from 1915 
to 1917. 

Since Miss Buss's appointment, the history of the library 
has been one of uninterrupted advance. With her score of 
assistants she is in constant touch with the exacting demands 
of the public and has brought the system up to a high state 
of efficiency. , • j .$.! I 

Three branches cater to the needs and convenience of 
the public. One is in North Pasadena; one in East Pasa- 
dena; and a station is located on Washington Street and 
Lake Avenue. 

The patronage of these branches indicates their desira- 
bility. 

In 1916, A. C. Vroman, a public spirited citizen, 
bequeathed $10,000 to be applied to the purchase of literature 
dealing with California and the Southwest, in the study of 
which he was much interested, and also for works of Art and 
books on Art. He also donated a fine collection of books from 
his own library, chiefly relating to the subjects named. 

The gift of "Curtis' Indians" — an exceedingly beautiful 
and elaborate collection of books and valuable Indian 
photographs, costing $3000 — was recently made by Miss 
Susan Stickney, who has been a valuable friend of this 
library. Another donor, Mrs. Emmaline Bowler, a few years 
ago bequeathed 700 volumes and many valuable art photo- 
graphs. This collection has been installed as the Bowler 
Memorial and has its own place in the building. 

Mention must be made of the collection of Californiana 
gradually acquired by Miss Buss during the past 19 years. 
This collection embraces many rare books, documents, news- 
papers and letters; also autographs of great value, in some 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 285 

cases not duplicated. For instance, the first newspaper pub- 
lished in California; letters of California's governor under 
the old regime ; and autographs of many eminent personages. 
When the commission form of government was decreed, the 
Library Board, as originally constituted, was abolished, and 
the present "advisory" board superseded it. This Board 
now consists of Rev. Daniel F. Fox and J. W. Wood, with 
one vacancy. 

As an indication of the "reading taste" the following 
statistics will be illuminating (taken from report of fiscal 
year 1916-17) : 

Total circulation of books 350,000 

Circulation per capita 8 

Circulation — Juvenile Department 75,000 

Percentage of fiction circulation 51 

Percentage of Juvenile 19 

A new feature of the library's activities was inaugurated 
when, in 1916, Mrs. Gussie Packard DuBois was engaged to 
promote interest among public school children in books, and 
to direct their reading into proper channels. Up to this time 
six small libraries have been established as branches, in 
schools distant from the main libraries, and at intervals Mrs. 
DuBois has addressed these pupils and, out of her deep 
reservoir of information, has given them many valuable 
hints. This extension work, so called, has been productive 
of increased desire to read and improvement in the character 
of the subjects chosen. This work will be expanded as oppor- 
tunity and means permit. 

In this connection may be mentioned the work of Mrs. 
DuBois in conducting the Library and Civic Magazine — not 
only a readers' guide in the choice of books, but dealing with 
civic problems and interests that are vital to a city's welfare. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

Schools and Colleges 

AS THE YOUNG IDEA BEGAN TO SHOOT AND THE DEMANDS FOR SCHOOL 
FACILITIES CONTINUED, PASADENA GOT BUSY ACCORDINGLY. FROM 
THE LITTLE " SHACK " ON SOUTH ORANGE GROVE AVENUE, TO THE 
MODERN HALF MILLION DOLLAR POLYTECHNIC HIGH, IS A STORY OF 
IMPORTANCE AND A SYNONYM OF EDUCATIONAL GROWTH. 

HE call for schools, and more schools, has been 
insistent and continuous since the very first little 
plain and unpretentious structure of colony days. 
At nearly all times has the voter of Pasadena been 
in accord with the demand when called upon to 
vote bonds for new schools. True, not always have these 
bonds been voted, immediately upon demand, for upon 
occasions there has been such division of sentiment and 
purpose that the voter has been reluctant, or in opposition. 
Opposition to the schoolhouse, per se, has not been the case, 
but to some other factor involved which, in the end, was 
smoothed out and overcome by fair explanation. 

It is unquestioned that Pasadena is most favorably located 
for schools, climatically and physically. Possessing the 
elements of salubrity in perfection; to-wit: sunshine in 
plenty; no extremes of temperature; and possibilities for 
outdoor exercises almost any day of the entire year, Pasa- 
dena offers conditions that go to make the pupil mentally 
and physically balanced, and receptive to the training that 
is set before him. 

The same advantages fit the instructor for his or her part 
in the exactions demanded. There is no winter with its harsh 
vagaries to keep the child indoors, but on the contrary, it is 
then that the garden and the field offer opportunities for 
physical training and instruction not found elsewhere. It is 
taken advantage of. These fortuitous considerations may 
well induce the prophecy that in some future time Pasadena 
will become a city where great schools and colleges may fill 
a picture of scholastic greatness. Here indeed may be built 
a new state university to accommodate the demand upon the 

286 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 287 

resources of the state now bursting the walls of Berkeley. 

But in the meantime, Pasadena is building its public 
schools and its educational systems to prepare for the greater 
epoch. It may well be, that some of the young men and 
young women who pass from these portals will come back 
with illustrious degrees to, in turn, take up their labors in 
the great schools that a future may have in store for us here. 

Then, too, perhaps, there will be the College of Arts, 
where the propensities that are incited by lovely surround- 
ings will thrive and grow and be given expression in ideal 
ways. 

The public school must be the beginning of the higher 
aspirations, as it is indeed the foundation of good citizenship 
and civic virtues. If society expects from the boys and girls 
whom it pays to train and educate a fair return for the 
cost and the privileges offered them, it must be important 
that no mistakes be made in such training. Let the schools 
be of the best and let us demand an adequate requital. Pasa- 
dena need not claim to have the very best schools known, but 
claims their reputation as being comparable with the best — 
which is sufficient in the day when the public school is close 
to the university and college. 

In the pioneer days there was the primitive little rough 
board building, with its one teacher and a dozen odd pupils. 
That good first teacher has yet been preserved to us by a 
kindly fate, and it is her pleasure now to dream back over 
the interregnum of many years, and recall the first little 
"class" of but two, with whom she inaugurated the educa- 
tional system of Pasadena! Jennie Clapp Culver is proud 
of that first class — the "Banbury twins" — who also yet live 
to talk, in pensive reminiscence, about their beloved school 
and its teacher; and to enjoy the proud distinction of being 
the "original" scholars of Pasadena's first school. Upon 
Jennie Clapp Culver, the accolade is tendered that gives her 
this uncontested distinction. 

It is related in another place, how, when the Supervisors 
created the San Pasqual School District on August the 4th, 
1874, they also appointed Henry Gr. Bennett and Jabez Ban- 
bury Trustees for this District. Also, that Thomas F. Croft 
was designated census taker of said District. As aforesaid, 
also, Jennie Clapp became the first teacher. Then at a formal 
election held September the 12th, 1874, these same Trustees, 



288 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

also Dr. W. W. Edwards, were unanimously elected to till 
these offices — the vote totalling just ten ! Thus the San Pas- 
qual District came into legal existence. It embraced all of 
the original colony, east to Santa Anita Road, and to the 
mountains on the north. Miss Clapp began her little 
" school' ' in her father's house, and in a month the class had 
grown from two to nineteen, also six muchachos and mucha- 
chas — otherwise boys and girls of Mexican parentage. 

It was soon realized that better facilities must be had, 
and funds were obtained from the District to the extent of 
$300, and a little rough board building built on Orange 
Grove Avenue just south of California Street. 

For economy's sake, "Tom" Croft and J. R. Giddings- 
hauled the lumber as their offering to this temple of educa- 
tion. And among others Charley Bell assisted in the car- 
penter work. This schoolhouse was opened for its first 
session on January the 28th, 1875, with the following named 
pupils : Jennie and Lavina Mosher ; Charles Mosher ; Laura, 
Belle, Will, Ben and George Eaton; Howard Conger; Jennie 
and Jessie Banbury; Whittier and Agnes Elliott; Florence 
and Forrest Edwards; Belle B. and Jas. M. Wilson; also 
Charles and Maggie Wilson of another family — just nineteen 
all told. I believe none of these now reside in Pasadena, 
although some of them yet live in California. So, in the 
little one-room building under the friendly shade of a spread- 
ing oak tree, began the educational system of Pasadena, now 
so great and important. Around this little building was 
planted a grove of orange trees, which eventually, displaced 
the schoolhouse and the oak tree. Nearby, was the Arroyo 
bed, with its park-like condition, inviting the children in their 
intervals of recreation — an alluring playground, made joyous 
by the jubilation of meadow lark and mocking bird whose 
notes mingled in echoing cadences with the gleeful voices 
of Pasadena's first school children. Jennie Clapp labored 
industriously with these pioneer scholars, but did not con- 
tinue very long in this duty. She was succeeded by a Mrs. 
Rogers — temporarily — who in turn, was followed by Eugenia 
Rudisill, who taught during the years 1876 and 1877. The 
schoolhouse was also used as a meeting place — a "community 
house" for the pioneers, it being for the time, the only 
public building. A village Literary Society was formed too, 
and the young men and women of the Colony, as well as the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 289 

older ones — not many, all told — engaged in the nsual 
exercises pertaining to such societies in those days. I believe 
there was a singing school also, as a medium for social min- 
gling as well as for vocal culture. These meetings became so 
well attended that more space was needed to accommodate 
them, which was provided by the hands of the willing youth 
and an enlargement of the little schoolhouse. A literary 
symposium of village talent called The Reservoir, was 
evolved from the brain of Arthur H. Day, a former news- 
paper man of Chicago. It was made up of the genius of the 
Colony, everyone who had a mind to, being invited to con- 
tribute. The result was talent, wit and doggerel in amusing- 
lots. Here Mrs. Jennie Collier Graham, afterwards a story 
writer of reputation, made her debut. In fact, Mrs. Graham 
edited No. 2 of The Reservoir. With the schoolhouse located 
on Orange Grove Avenue, it was believed that the center of 
a possible " village" was fixed. But this idea was dissipated 
when the Lake Vineyard Colony lands were opened up and 
began to attract settlers. When that newer settlement, by 
superior "politics" or persuasion, was able to move the 
schoolhouse over there, these ambitions were dissipated for 
the coming " center" moved with the schoolhouse. It hap- 
pened in this wise. When B. D. Wilson, the owner of the 
Lake Vineyard Colony lands, subdivided that tract, he, 
naturally, wanted to make it as attractive for settlement as 
possible, and therefore set aside five acres on the southeast 
corner of Colorado Street and Fair Oaks Avenue for a school 
site; and, on November 10th, 1876, despite a strenuous oppo- 
sition from the west side people, who thus saw their ambitions 
menaced, the little school building took a journey to its new 
site. Of course, the explanation was that the new location 
was central for the two Colonies — just beginning to grow. 
And there was reason in the argument, for all told, there were 
not yet one hundred families in both Colonies. But the West 
Side people, not to be deprived of school facilities, seceded 
from the San Pasqual District and besought of the Super- 
visors one of their own to be called the "Pasadena School 
District." This was accomplished in January, 1878, and 
included the territory south of California Street and west of 
Fair Oaks Avenue. This school was first opened in a small 
building belonging to C. B. Ripley — afterwards used as a 
home by him — situated on the top of the hill (Rose Hill) just 



290 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

west of C. D. Daggett 's home place — ' ' Columbia Hill. ' ' Later 
this latter site was purchased and a neat schoolhouse erected 
on it in 1883. This building was afterwards converted into 
a dwelling by C. D. Daggett. The following teachers were, 
successively, engaged for this school: Miss Bessie Harris, 
Miss Fannie Carroll, Miss Minnie Joslyn, C. H. Case and R. 
B. Warren. (See Chapter on South Pasadena.) 

Soon after the removal of the original school, the school 
population had increased to such an extent that an additional 
teacher was required for it, hence two teachers were engaged 
and continued from the year 1877 to 1879. P. G. Wooster 
conducted a summer school in this building, just to "fill in" 
his time, when not wrestling with horticultural problems and 
other things. 

Matters educational flourished with the growing of the 
sister Colonies, and it was soon apparent that more room 
were necessary. On March 30th, 1878, a bond issue of $3500 
was approved by a vote of 44 to 4. It was apparent then, as 
has been the frequent experience of later years, that the sum 
voted was inadequate to provide for the growing demands. 
But no new bonds were asked for ; instead, the pioneers pro- 
ceeded to raise the necessary additional sum by donations in 
money, and by labor or material, and in this way over $700 
was subscribed and made good. Sufficient to here state, that 
nearly every male resident became a donor in some manner. 
The result was a two-story frame building — fine for its day 
and circumstance. The new building gave joy to the Col- 
onists who named it the Central School, and it was then 
believed it would fulfill all demands for years to come. This 
new building was ready for occupancy early in 1879. Let me 
here relate the final history of the original schoolhouse. With 
the occupation of the new edifice in 1879, the old one was 
cut into two parts, to facilitate its further use without entirely 
wrecking it. One of these halves was purchased by R. 
Williams and was moved to his land south of the school lot, 
and became incorporated into a cottage there. The other 
half was purchased by Alex F. Mills and moved onto his land 
across Fair Oaks Avenue, and it, too, became part of a cottage 
home for him and Mrs. Mills, who were then not long married. 
In the boom of 1886 the Williams cottage was sold and moved 
to Adella Avenue (407) and afterward gave place to a dwell- 
ing. The final chapter in the history of this historic building 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 291 

occurred when about 1886 the Mills cottage was sold to J. A. 
De Hay and moved to a lot on Waverly Drive. It was finally 
displaced for a newer home. So ended Pasadena's first school- 
house. 

The upper story of the Central School was, for a time, 
used as the village forum, where the settlers met to confer 
upon all matters of mutual importance. When Williams Hall 
was built this room was no longer regularly used for this 
purpose, although it was now and then for small meetings. 
The first teachers in the Central School were Newell 
Matthews and Miss Florence Royce (afterward Mrs. C. H. 
Case). The same teachers continued in the following year. 
In 1880 Gr. C. Hall succeeded Matthews, but Miss Royce 
remained. In this year the average attendance was 40 
students from 30 families. It was in 1880 that Mrs. Jeanne 
Carr was named as "Principal," her assistant being Mrs. 
Elizabeth M. Winston, wife of "Lang" Winston (who later 
met a tragic fate by being lost in the mountains), and Miss 
Royce. It would seem that three teachers for 40 pupils was 
extravagant. Mrs. Carr continued as Principal for one year 
only, no Principal being employed during the next three 
years, or until 1883. 

In the year 1883 the daily average attendance had 
increased to 100, and was taxing the capacity of the Central 
School for accommodation. In that year E. T. Pierce was 
engaged as Principal. He came with a professional reputa- 
tion which was afterwards justified by his services in Cali- 
fornia ; for from the Pasadena school he was appointed head 
of the State Normal School at Chico; and after a few years 
of successful administration there, was transferred to the 
more important Normal School at Los Angeles. During 
Pierce's incumbency of the Central School Mrs. Winston and 
Miss Royce remained as his assistants. In the following year 
Mrs. Pierce succeeded Miss Royce, who had married C. H. 
Case. Mrs. Pierce was also an accomplished teacher and for 
three years gave valuable service in that vocation. 

In 1884 there were 363 school children, according to 
the census, in the San Pasqual District, with an enrollment 
of 222, and average attendance of 155. With the settlements 
of tracts of land north — the Painter & Ball Tract — also the 
increase in settlement eastward, there was a demand for 
more convenient school accommodation in these sections, 



292 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

hence two new schools were built, one at Monk Hill (Wash- 
ington School) and one on East Colorado Street and Hill 
Avenue (Grant). 

The grounds for the first were donated by Painter & Ball 
and the lot for the second purchased for $175.00 (it con- 
tained one acre). These buildings were finished in 1884. 
Miss Elma Ball (now Mrs. H. I. Stuart) was selected as 
teacher in the Hill Street School, and Miss Hannah Ball (now 
Mrs. F. R. Harris) taught the young and effervescent idea in 
the other. The original site for the Washington School was 
near Monk Hill, and was exchanged for the larger present 
site, where the new modern building succeeded the original 
one. Both of these young ladies being freshly graduated 
from the State Normal School, there could be no doubt of 
the phenomenal intelligence instilled into the heads of the 
juveniles over whom they exercised their pedagogical 
profundity. 

Mrs. Harris tells the following amusing story about one 
of her pupils — Frank Brenner. Of course, Frank was a 
small boy then. The teacher, endeavoring to fathom the 
depths of intelligence of the class, was interrogating them, 
and said — " Little boys and girls, how many kinds of bees are 
there !" Up went Frank's hand, in convulsive acclaim — 
" Three kinds, teacher." "Name them, Frank." "Bumble- 
bee, honeybee and horsefly!" came with astonishing quick- 
ness from Frank, while the school resounded with the laugh 
that followed, much to his amazement. 

The beginning of Pasadena's second decade found nearly 
250 pupils enrolled, and three schools, with four teachers 
who endeavored, under many difficulties, to take care of their 
large and growing classes. This was the status in 1886 when 
the school trustees decided to sell the Central School lot and 
with the proceeds build a more commodious school else- 
where. H. W. Magee, Sherman Washburn and A. 0. Bristol 
were trustees at the time. Another reason for this course, 
was the fact that the growing business demanded a more 
homogeneous center which the presence of the school 
property interfered with. In fact, the "village" had now 
grown into the dignity of a "town." In pursuance of this 
purpose, the five acre school lot was subdivided into business 
lots and sold, at auction, March 12th, 1886, the proceeds from 
the sale being $44,772. Two million dollars is now a fair 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 293 

estimate of the value of that property, after the thirty years 
that have intervened. The delay of a year would have meant, 
in all probability, a very much larger price for this property, 
for the "boom" would have then arrived. However, this 
very sale contributed its influence in creating that boom. 

With the handsome sum in hand, the trustees purchased 
a lot on North Marengo Avenue and built the Wilson School 
upon it, at a cost of $30,000. Six thousand dollars Avas paid 
for the lot. This building was considered, at the time, one 
of the best school buildings in the county. It was formally 
opened with the fall semester of 1887. During the year that 
had passed, the village of Pasadena had grown like Jonah's 
gourd, and became a town of nearly 10,000. The boom had 
smitten it and was at its apogee. By the time the new build- 
ing was ready it was found to be too small, and like the other 
schools it was overflowing. 

E. T. Pierce continued as head of the school system, 
nominally as Superintendent, though in fact no such office 
officially existed. Herbert Pinckney was appointed as his 
assistant, and was also Principal of the High School. Mis- 
understandings began between Pierce and Pinckney, prin- 
cipally, it was believed, because Pinckney had ambitions to 
succeed Pierce. These differences were intensified as time 
went on, and at last became a matter of public contention. 
The school trustees were divided upon the retention of 
Pinckney. As the town had now become incorporated, the 
question of the jurisdiction of the trustees was involved. 
C. F. Holder, who had been elected trustee, resigned, and 
George F. Kernaghan succeeded him, giving a majority of 
the trustees favorable to the Pierce side. In the end, Pinck- 
ney resigned and the Pierce faction triumphed. W x hen in 
1889 Pierce became head of the Chico Normal School the 
trustees selected Prof. Will S. Monroe, an eastern pedagogue, 
as his successor. The position of "City Superintendent" 
was created at this time. Monroe who had never been on 
the ground during the unfortunate dissensions, was for a 
time the scapegoat of the pro-Pinckney partisans, because 
of his selection by the opponents of Pinckney by the Board 
of Trustees. But Monroe was diplomatic and tactful and 
devoted himself to his duties endeavoring to ignore factional 
conditions. In this he succeeded so well as to, in time, cause 
the "late unpleasantness" to become measurably forgotten. 



294 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Monroe remained a successful Superintendent for three 
years, retiring in 1892 to devote himself to study. He is now 
the head of the department of Psychology and the History of 
Education, in the State Normal School of Montclair, New 
Jersey. He has also distinguished himself as the author of 
a half dozen books on European travel. 

James D. Graham who had been principal of the Wilson 
High School was selected as Monroe's successor with the title 
of Supervising Principal (the title of Superintendent being 
temporarily dropped). Graham continued in this position, 
a popular official, until 1907 and was then succeeded by A. L. 
Hamilton, who had been some years previously connected 
with these schools, and was from 1888 to 1893 principal of the 
Garfield School. 

The office of Superintendent had been restored by this 
time. This change of Superintendents produced more differ- 
ences and Hamilton's position was not a bed of roses. In 
the end, he was — in September, 1911 — superseded in his posi- 
tion as Superintendent by Jeremiah M. Rhodes, who came 
with high endorsements as an educator. Hamilton was 
appointed Rhode's assistant with increased salary. These 
changes were made to further a condition of harmony and 
measurably succeeded. Upon the accession of Rhodes there 
were in all 19 schools, 304 teachers and an enrollment of 7600 
pupils. 

The new Polytechnic had just been completed and opened 
and Pasadena had set itself upon a high and ambitious plane 
for its public schools. Long since its graduates had been 
accredited to the State University, also to Stanford, and 
maintained there the reputation for their early training. 

THE "POLY" HIGH 

Every Pasadenan must be moved to emotions of pride and 
satisfaction when he views the splendid group of buildings 
embracing the high school system. Peculiarly, is this true of 
the "old timer" who recalls the little rough board "shack" 
that stood alone and humble upon the banks of the Arroyo — 
away back in 1875; then, turning to these up-to-the-minute 
structures, gazes upon their admirable architectural concep- 
tion, and the simplicity and harmony which characterizes 
their proportions. This group symbolizes, not merely the 
attainment reached in educational scope and efficiency, but 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 295 

they symbolize, as well, the evolution of public school methods 
and progress, that have caused them to approach closer and 
closer, to the threshold of the college and the university. 

The pedagogue of today must not be content to rest by 
the wayside but must keep progressing toward an ideal. He 
must be an expert, or become a discard. These three build- 
ings, arranged about a quadrangle, consist of the central, or 
Horace Mann, building in which is an auditorium capable of 
seating 1600 persons, the Louis Agassiz, and the Jane 
Addams structures. All of them are constructed of rein- 
forced concrete and therefore are fireproof. The grounds and 
campus comprise 18% acres and cost $65,000; the group of 
buildings cost $465,000 and the equipment $102,000, or a 
grand total of $632,000. 

Seventeen hundred pupils are now enrolled in the high 
school. Every building is fitted with a complete and up-to- 
date equipment — from the cafeteria where the students may 
for a few cents, obtain a reasonable lunch, to the laboratory 
where the highest grade scientific apparatus is carefully 
housed. A detailed description of the curriculum is not quite 
in place here, but it may be said that it embraces the most 
advanced of its kind. Manual arts — the co-ordinating of 
mind and body toward an ultimate practical accomplish- 
ment; that is the idea here taught. Physical training has 
its proper attention ; House Economics ; a Commercial 
course; Science course; Music; Art and Agriculture. Do 
not these produce capable young men or women? Under 
Professor Keinholtz's methods, farming as it should be done, 
is also part of the practical curriculum which the Professor 
knows well how to instill into the youthful mind. Professor 
Keinholtz has been so successful with his school farm that 
he has become a popular encyclopedia of reference, on farm 
and gardening topics with the Pasadena public, and his 
clientele is large. How fortunate indeed, is the youth 
of today, who in the public school may begin his edu- 
cational course with the most elementary rudiments — the 
kindergarten — and finish it with an understanding that 
embraces arts, science, mechanics, calisthenics, commercial 
needs ; and ends with practical instruction in milking cows 
and propagating garden vegetables and farm crops ! Truly, 
it is the fortunate youth, or the blessed young miss! With 
such equipment he or she need not fear to face the world and 



296 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

to give good account of the Alma Mater that prepared them. 
So the blessed youth of the twentieth century may be thank- 
ful that he, at least in Pasadena, has the opportunity of pre- 
paring himself to meet the exactions of an exacting age. It 
is not the fault of the system if he falls short. 

Among the organizations fostered in the high school and 
established by the pupils, is the Junior Board of Trade, con- 
ducted upon the plan of the City Board with regular officers, 
etc. Politics also is mildly indulged in as a training, and 
regular City Officers elected, just as in City elections, lessons 
in political and civic duties. Debating teams also prove a 
regular intellectual entertainment. Aside from these, are the 
many organizations of a musical and social nature, a band 
and a glee club in the number. 

The High School Item is a regular monthly publication 
conducted with ability and enterprise by the pupils chosen 
from the school body. 

Interesting Data 

The offices of the public school system are in the Chamber 
of Commerce Building, where they have been kept for several 
years, it being a more central and therefore more convenient 
place to transact the business. Norval G. Felker who has 
been connected with these schools for many years, first as a 
teacher, is in charge of the offices and is a business manager 
who is kept busy every minute, devoting himself to the many 
affairs that come under his jurisdiction. 

Public School Directory for 1917 

board of education 

George R. Bickley, President. 

Mrs. Clara M. Odell. 

Mrs. Ruth Wetherby. 

C. S. Thompson. 

Mrs. G. B. Dane. 

Norval G. Felker, Clerk of the Board. 

ADMINISTRATION AND BUSINESS DEPARTMENTS 

Superintendent, Jeremiah M. Rhodes. 
Supervising Principal, Walter C. Wilson. 
Business Manager, Norval G. Felker. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 297 

Secretary to Superintendent, Leona C. Carver. 
Bookkeeper and Stenographer, Florence P. Eeed. 

In most cases, adequate grounds surround the schools, 
to allow space for exercise and play. Not less than a city 
block, or if possible as much as three acres, being acquired. 
A portion of this space is used for garden work and 
elementary agriculture, this being a practical part of the 
curriculum in its general direction of physical development, 
along with mental. Mental and dental inspection is required, 
special examiners being engaged for the purpose — on the 
principal mens sano in corpora sano — for of course physical 
development is a fundamental necessity. 

It has been urged by Superintendent Bhodes, that a 
Junior College shall be established for the use of advanced 
students, and no doubt this will be one of the new adjuncts in 
the future. 

Expenses and Investments 

School buildings— 23. Teachers (1917-18)— 340. Salaries 
of teachers: 
Elementary grades, including proportionate 

charge for Superintendent $204,976.11 

High School and Intermediate and Supt 178,959.39 

Kindergarten and Superintendent 29,242.50 

Miscellaneous — including maintenance, janitors, 

equipment, repairs, rentals, etc 230,044.10 

Grand Total $643,222.10 

The enrollment is: 

Elementary 5,616 

Kindergarten 684 

High and Intermediate 1,748 

Total enrollment 8,048 

Average daily attendance — all schools — 6580. Based 
upon the average attendance. The cost per pupil is as 
follows : 

Kindergarten $141.10 

Elementary 71.12 

High — Intermediate 165.38 



298 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Or, upon total enrollment an average of approximately 
$80 per pupil. Or, upon population basis (4600) of $13.30 
per capita. 

The bonded indebtedness of the district is $954,000 — 
all bonds now under retirement (mostly 4i/>%). Tax rate 
including County High rate — $1.09 on each $100 of assessed 
value. 

Total assessed value of school properties. Elementary 
Schools : 

Real Estate $ 367,952.00 

Buildings 606,557.00 

Furniture, Apparatus and Library 84,296.00 

Total $1,058,805.00 

High School: 

Real Estate and Buildings $ 530,303.00 

Furniture and Apparatus 83,439.00 

Library and Laboratories 19,200.00 

Total $ 632,942.00 

Throop Polytechnic College 

The name of "Father" Throop is held in affectionate 
regard, not only by every citizen of Pasadena who knows of 
his benefactions, but by hundreds of boys and girls else- 
where, who owe to his thoughtfulness much of their fitness 
for meeting life's opportunities and adversities. Allen G. 
Throop 's personality stamped itself upon this community, 
after he had surrendered, as he thought, his activities in 
Chicago — his "home town" — and came here to pass the 
autumn of his life in repose. Not very great, in the sum of 
money conferred, but forever lasting in the sum of his and 
its usefulness, the founding of Throop University, and the 
endowment of it with almost all of a fortune not already 
devoted to benevolences. 

"Father" Throop, as he was affectionately called, found 
that his predilections to philanthropic activities could not be 
quite suppressed. First, he founded a church, and made it 
prosper; then he became identified with civic affairs, being a 
member of the Board of Trustees of the City, and a public 
school trustee. Then his mind became attracted to the 
greater and more imperative philanthropy which resulted in 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 299 

the educational institution that stands a memorial to a great 
idea. Father Throop came to Pasadena in 1886, and in the 
intervals of personal affairs, began to discuss with his friends 
the paramount idea then in his mind — a school where boys 
and girls might be taught to use their hands and their brains 
simultaneously, and there to work out his theory of practical 
education. 

It was in the year 1891 that he invited a few of his 
closest friends to a conference, outlined to them his purpose, 
and asked their confidence and support in carrying it out. 
Rev. E. L. Conger; Prof. C. H. Keyes, Supt. of the Riverside 
School; Prof. J. D. Graham, Principal of the Pasadena High 
School, and Prof. W. S. Monroe, Supt. of the Pasadena 
Public Schools, were among those most interested, in that 
meeting, the outcome of which was the beginning of 
"Throop." In a brief time preliminaries were arranged, 
and the Wooster Building, on the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue 
and Green Street, was leased and preparation made to open 
it in pursuance of the Throop plan. 

At first, it was incorporated as "Throop University, ' ' its 
scope being big and broad. Its incorporators were: H. W. 
Magee; H. H. Markham; J. C. Michener; W. U. Masters; J. 
S. Hodge; George H. Bonebrake (of L. A.); Delos Arnold; 
T. P. Lukens; E. F. Hurlbut; Lionel A. Sheldon; T. C. S. 
Lowe; P. M. Green; F. C. Howe; M. D. Painter; and of 
course, A. G. Throop himself. In October an executive com- 
mittee, consisting of A. G. Throop; W. E. Arthur; Rev. E. L. 
Conger; Mrs. Louise T. Conger and E. E. Spaulding, was 
added and "Father" Throop elected President of the Board 
of Trustees. A faculty of ten was selected, and the school 
opened with 35 students on November 2d, 1891. 

Of course, it was but the beginning, and it began as the 
"littlest" University, but the benefactor was delighted, even 
at the small beginning. It was soon discovered that the 
Wooster Building was not satisfactorily arranged for school 
purposes, the baby University must have more capacious 
quarters. A body of land was secured on Chestnut Street in 
1892, and here the first unit of a building group was built, 
and added to from time to time as needs required. 

At that time it was deemed advisable to modify the 
original "University" plan, and to make the industrial 
feature paramount, hence the name was changed to "Throop 



300 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Polytechnic Institute," the central idea being, as originally 
indicated, to train the mind and the body together, and with 
this creed ever in mind it has gone forward persistently and 
indefatigably. 

In honor of the new departure, and as a mark of esteem 
felt by the citizens, "Throop Day" was made a day of rejoic- 
ing throughout the City, December 21st, 1893, and publicly 
observed as such. On this occasion Father Throop formally 
and publicly, gave over to the institute all of the property 
he had set aside for the purpose of endowment, amounting 
in value to about $125,000. 

He also specifically declared at the time, that the institu- 
tion "must forever be conducted entirely upon a non- 
sectarian plan." The buildings and other property were 
accepted in behalf of the City by O. F. Weed, Chairman of 
the City Board of Trustees, with remarks appropriate to the 
occasion. At this meeting, $12,000, in scholarships, were 
donated by citizens desirous of aiding the cause. A fine 
portrait of Father Throop, donated by the Trustees, was 
presented to the School, W. E. Arthur making the presenta- 
tion speech. A banquet followed in the evening, attended by 
250 citizens. Throop Institute opened the doors of the first 
unit of this new group of buildings in 1893, with 158 pupils. 
C. H. Keyes was President at this time. 

The Board of Trustees were as follows : P. M. Green ; 
E. E. Spaulding; Mrs. Ellen I. Stanton; Mrs. Louise T. W. 
Conger; Enoch Knight; T. P. Lukens; W. E. Arthur; John 
Wadsworth; C. B. Scoville; Dr. Norman Bridge; W. L. Har- 
dison; E. L. Conger; C. D. Daggett and C. H. Keyes — the lat- 
ter being chosen as President of the Institute. Under these 
auspices Throop had its beginning, and made fair headway, 
yet always feeling the necessity of more money to widen the 
pathway of its achievements. It was providing a technical 
education for young men and women, making the men better 
citizens, and the women better wives, because, with their skill 
acquired at the bench, at the forge, and in the kitchen of this 
laboratory they also absorbed the better ethics of life, the 
inspirations of its literature, and the spiritual code which 
make life a useful and illuminating procession of years. 
This is indeed the Throop Idea, as visualized by its founder 
and carried out by the successive arbiters that have governed 
its destiny. 



PASADENA— HISTOEICAL AND PERSONAL 301 

Prof. Walter A. Edwards succeeded President Keyes and 
continued to administer the affairs of the Institute, success- 
fully, until 1907, when he resigned. Prof. Arthur H. Cham- 
berlain became acting president until the following year, when 
Dr. A. B. Scherer was chosen as president and under his able 
administration the College has gone forward in its due 
course. In 1913 the " Institute' ' became transformed to the 
Throop "College" of Technology and added to its already 
extensive curriculum an extension in the Physics course, 
embracing some noteworthy additions, made possible by an 
endowment of $100,000 for this especial use. 

In 1908 a splendid campus, comprising 22 acres, contain- 
ing some fine oak trees and an orange grove, was acquired, 
and upon this the erection of present buildings was begun. 

Pasadena Hall — the first completed — was dedicated with 
fitting ceremonies in June, 1910. It is a noteworthy struc- 
ture of concrete with burnt tile roofing, containing 62 rooms, 
fitted with complete modern equipment. Other needed build- 
ings followed, and especially a commodious Chemistry 
Building in 1917. 

In 1917, as an outcome of the war, a department of Aereo- 
nautic research was added and interesting investigations in 
this wide field will be made with the prospective co-operation 
of the U. S. Government. 

Professor Scherer is at this writing engaged in the prob- 
lem of Food Conservation, by direction of the Government, 
to which he was called early in 1917, and is, without salary, 
devoting his entire time to this vast labor. 

Through his associate faculty of 37 instructors, the work 
of the College will move forward, as its destiny commands. 

The officers of the College are as follows : 

Officers of the Board : Norman Bridge, President ; Arthur 
H. Fleming, First Vice-President ; Charles J. Willett ; William 
C. Baker ; John Wadsworth, Third Vice-President and Audi- 
tor; Edward C. Barrett, Secretary and Assistant Treasurer; 
William H. Vedder, Treasurer; James A. B. Scherer, Presi- 
dent of the College. 

Executive Committee : Norman Bridge, Chairman ex-offi- 
cio ; Arthur H. Fleming ; George S. Patton ; William C. Baker ; 
William H. Vedder. 

Finance Committee: A. H. Fleming; C. W. Gates; Henry 
M. Robinson. 



302 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Thkoop Polytechnic Elementaky 

A kindergarten for boys and girls leading up to the High 
School. As its plan implies, it is a training school where the 
child may grow up in the rudimentary studies and grow into 
the High School full panoplied. 

Siekka Madke College 

Only old timers will remember the attempts made years 
ago to establish the first College, or as it was sometimes more 
pretentiously called, a University, in Pasadena or vicinity. 
But old timers will scarcely remember the details which are 
here set down, though there are now hereabouts, several 
young men whose Alma Mater was the Sierra Madre College. 
It was in 1884 that certain persons of Los Angeles and Pasa- 
dena met to consider the practicability of securing a college. 
Among them were P. M. Green, B. F. Eaton, H. W. Magee 
and Eev. W. Thomson of Pasadena ; Rev. J. W. Ellis and Dr. 
George Cochrane of Los Angeles, and Abbott Kinney of 
Kinneloa. 

Propositions for suitable sites were submitted at a meet- 
ing held February 13th, 1884, among which were the follow- 
ing: From Painter & Ball, 50 acres, and a subscription of 
cash, of $2425. This site included Monk Hill. The Hermosa 
Vista site in South Pasadena of 16 acres, with large building 
thereon, for $16,000. Several pieces of land embracing Rose 
Hill, owned by C. B. Ripley (now owned by John B. Miller), 
for $5000. A strip of land belonging to the Orange Grove 
Association, containing 54 acres, which would be added to 
the Ripley property, the whole offered for $33,000. The hill 
(Columbia Hill) and public school thereon containing 6 acres, 
for the nominal sum of $1000. Also 40 acres, covered with 
fine oak trees in the Santa Anita Ranch, and $5000 cash, from 
E. J. Baldwin — a donation. 

It was originally decided to accept the Hermosa Vista 
site, together with part of the Ripley property, which would 
cost, in all, $21,000, but the schoolhouse site of six acres was 
finally agreed to be satisfactory and that proposal was 
accepted. The Board of Trustees chosen was as follows : 
D. H. Newton ; Rev. J. W. Ellis ; Dr. George Cochrane ; P. M. 
Green; J. F. Crank; Abbott Kinney; K.W. Magee; W. T. 
Clapp ; Rev. W. Thompson ; B. F. Eaton, and C. C. Hastings. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 303 

Rev. J. W. Ellis was chosen President; Rev. W. Thomson, 
Vice-President; P. M. Green, Secretary; and Abbott Kinney, 
Treasurer. The faculty was almost as numerous as the first 
class, which attended on the opening day, September 17th, 
1884. The school of M. M. Parker was absorbed in this enter- 
prise, Professor Parker becoming one of the faculty of the 
new College, as did also Rev. Wiliel Thomson and Rev. J. W. 
Healy. It is interesting to say here, that in a way this 
College was responsible for the accession to Pasadena of 
Professor C. F. Holder, who, seeking a more salubrious 
climate, had been offered a chair as Professor of Zoology and 
Natural History in the prospective College, and arrived here 
in expectation of filling the appointment. But as will be 
related, reasons supervened which made it a will-of-the-wisp 
journey for that purpose, but gave Pasadena a high class 
citizen. 

Twenty-five pupils matriculated at the opening of Sierra 
Madre College and the start was deemed propitious. Efforts 
were made to obtain endowments and support, and it was 
hoped that the offers would surely come. 

As was recorded in a newspaper report at the time, at the 
closing exercises of the first term, "Tom" Allin (now City 
Commissioner) received the first prize for " general scholar- 
ship/ ' which was given by E. F. Hurlbut; and " honorable 
mention " was awarded Philip Raab. Notwithstanding 
strenuous endeavors to obtain financial support the College 
did not succeed in obtaining material aid and gave up the 
pedagogic ghost in the second year of its impotent life. The 
sheriff facilitated this conclusion to ambitious effort, and the 
schoolhouse was sold to pay pressing obligations. 

Since that time efforts have, at various times, been made 
to secure the attention of some philanthropic person with a 
view of establishing a Woman's College in Pasadena, it being 
deemed an ideal location for the purpose. Andrew Carnegie, 
and also Mrs. Russell Sage were each importuned, while 
sojourning here, but neither responded. Others have been 
cajoled, but up to this time, Pasadena is getting along with- 
out a Woman's College. 

Miss Okton's School foe Girls 

Among the private institutions of learning, none has 
achieved higher standing in the esteem of those who are 



304 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

familiar with matters pertaining to the education of young 
ladies, than the Orton School. This achievement has been 
attained by reason of the rigid attention that the pupils 
receive, and the homelike and cultured atmosphere which 
surrounds them. This School was established by Miss Anna 
B. Orton and her sister, Susan R., in 1890 in a building 
erected by her on South Euclid Avenue. 

The Orton School is conducted on a thoroughly excellent 
educational system for young misses and is in its plan, pre- 
paratory to College entrance. A corps of assistants are 
engaged with the Misses Orton and its many young women 
graduates will testify by their own useful lives, in behalf of 
the auspicious beginning made at the Orton School for Girls. 

The Pasadena Academy 

The Pasadena Academy was established by M. M. Parker, 
assisted by Mrs. Parker, and the late C. M. Parker, his 
brother, in 1883. Its first sessions were begun at Professor 
Parker's residence on California Street. When the Sierra 
Madre College was started, Parker's Academy was merged 
into that enterprise, Prof. M. M. Parker becoming one of the 
faculty. When the College project failed, the Parker 
Academy was re-established, with headquarters at Williams 
Hall, later moving to the upper floor of the old Central 
School building, which had been by this time moved to South 
Raymond Avenue for use as a City Hall. 

In 1887 the Parker School was again moved to more com- 
modious quarters in the newly erected Grand Opera House 
Building; then once again moving — in 1889 — to the upper 
floor of the building, then used for City Hall purposes, on 
the northwest corner of Union Street and Fair Oaks Avenue. 
This Academy was conducted successfully until Throop 
opened its doors, when it became absorbed by this institu- 
tion, M. M. Parker becoming Vice-President and one of its 
faculty. 

Prof. Parker subsequently became the head of the Uni- 
versity of Arizona, where he remained for several years. He 
is now residing in Pasadena. 

Potts' Business College 

A commercial training school operated by Prof. M. G. 
Potts, and proving itself a desirable and successful school of 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 305 

business training for boys and girls, located on Union Street, 
and filling a much appreciated place in the community. More 
than one hundred pupils are here found busily engaged in 
preparing themselves for the fortunes of life and of the 
business that may be in store for them. 

Sayers' Business College 

Is another practical business school, located in the Kinney- 
Kendall Building. It is conducted on the lines followed with 
business schools and has made a good record of efficiency. 

Broadoak's Outdoor School 

As its name implies, this delightful school is "outdoor"; 
in fact, the buildings being set under fine live oaks, and 
amidst a splendid roomy garden where the ' ' kids ' ' may play 
and plant and construct to their heart's delight, and the more 
mature enjoy study under most agreeable auspices. 

This school was established by Ida Mae Brooks some 
years ago, and has developed into a training school for 
kindergarten teachers and a kindergarten for the children 
also. Usually, there are as many as 40 children and 50 young 
ladies, enrolled, and a staff of ten in the various branches 
of instruction pursued. Surely a school set amid these sur- 
roundings, will give opportunity for mental psychological 
and physical impulses in a preeminent degree ! 

Academy of the Holy Names 

Located on North Fair Oaks, a grammar and high 
school, was established in 1898, and while, primarily, a 
parochial school, will admit pupils from Protestant families. 
It is well attended and conducted in a broad scholarly way 
by Sister Lambert, Principal, and a corps of competent 
assistants. 

Miss Collamer's West Side Select School 

Miss Collamer has been a successful trainer and tutor of 
Pasadena children for many years and has acquired high 
place as such. Her system is successful and her popularity 
is of the best in school circles. 

20 



306 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Westeidge 

At 324 Madeline Drive Miss Ranney conducts a pre- 
paratory school for girls and does it with capable under- 
standing. Her success as a teacher is well established in 
Pasadena. 

The Children's Home 

Conducted by Miss Augusta Davies. This is a Montessori 
school, Miss Davies herself having been a pupil of Madame 
Montessori. With the increasing popularity of this method, 
this school has found fitting place in Pasadena's educational 
circles. 





CHAPTER XXXVI 

Churches and Religious Denominations 

story of pasadena's churches and those who began them — the 
first presbyterian, pasadena 's original church. 

N another chapter have been related the circum- 
stances surrounding the beginning of the first 
church in the Colony. It will be in place to here go 
into further details and continue the story. The 
first religious gathering was held at the bachelor 
house of Charles H. Watts, August 30th, 1874, at the corner 
of North Orange Grove Avenue and Kensington Place. Eight 
persons, all told, were present; one of these only, Mrs. Jennie 
Clapp Culver, now surviving. After Eeverend Mosher 's own 
home, at the corner of Fair Oaks and Walnut Street was 
purchased, the services were held in his house. Reverend 
Mosher, who was a missionary, was the man who began this 
movement and took fatherly charge of it. When a school- 
house was built, the meetings took place in that building, the 
first being held February 7th, 1875, and the first regular 
sermon there, being preached by the Reverend Mosher, who 
was a Presbyterian in faith. On March 21st, 1875, a meeting 
was held to organize a Presbyterian Church — the First Pres- 
byterian Church. This meeting took place in the schoolhouse. 
Seventy persons were present. At this meeting Rev. Dr. 
Haley of Newark, N. J., opened with prayer and Rev. A. F. 
White of Los Angeles followed, with an address appropriate 
to the occasion. Twenty-two persons signed the membership 
roll at this meeting as follows : W. T. Clapp and Mrs. Clapp ; 
Mrs. H. F. Skinner; Mrs. General George Stoneman; Mrs. 
M. S. Mosher; J. D. Vinnedge; A. Blix and Mrs. Blix; 
Thomas F. Croft; N. C. Carter and Mrs. Carter; W. H. Hen- 
derson; Mrs. B. S. Eaton; Mrs. L. Stratton; Dr. H. G. New- 
ton and Mrs. Newton; Josiah Locke; Dr. T. B. Elliott and 
Mrs. Elliott; Miss Helen J. Elliott, Dr. Elliott and W. T. 
Clapp were elected Elders and Dr. Elliott, Thomas Croft and 
D. H. Pike, Trustees ; W. T. Clapp, Treasurer, and Henry G. 
Bennett, Clerk. Rev. W. C. Mosher was elected pastor. A 

307 



308 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

"Union" Sunday School had been organized with D. H. Pike 
as Superintendent. 

Up to this time the Methodists had met in common with 
the Presbyterians and others; later, when the school- 
house was built, alternating Sundays with them. . Sub- 
scriptions were solicited by the Presbyterians for the 
church building and the money placed in the Temple 
& Workman Bank at Los Angeles, which shortly failed 
and the money was lost. But notwithstanding this severe 
blow, efforts were continued with final success, and a lot 
purchased on California, just east of Orange Grove Avenue. 
A lot for a parsonage, adjoining this, was also pur- 
chased, in 1877, containing 2% acres for $375. Building 
operations were commenced on the church and a comfortable 
structure costing $2,300 was finished in 1876. A parsonage 
costing $1,800 was built the following year. The first sermon 
preached in the new church was delivered February 27th, 

1876, by Eev. C. W. Tarr, a Methodist, for at that time there 
were alternating services being held by Methodists and Pres- 
byterians, both bodies using the same structure, in common; 
thus it came about that the first sermon happened to be on 
the day assigned to Methodist services. The church was not 
quite finished then. On Sunday, April 4th, the first Sacra- 
ment was administered during a Presbyterian service and 
the two previously selected Elders installed. 

The "union" prayer meetings that had been the custom, 
terminated in September, 1876; each church organization 
thereafter moving independently in its own orbit of activity. 
Rev. W. C. Mosher continued his services for a time, but in 
July, 1876, resigned to resume the missionary work in which 
he had long been engaged. Old timers will remember the 
Reverend Mosher with kindly memories, his quiet, unostenta- 
tious ways giving a pleasant impression. Succeeding him 
came James A. Mitchell, at a salary of $1,000, and he became 
the first regular pastor of this church. Mitchell resigned 
August 21st, 1877, and removed from the Colony. His suc- 
cessor was Rev. W. F. P. Noble, who had come to California 
in search of health and who began his pastorate October 1st, 

1877, continuing for two years. Noble resigned on account 
of his health January 23, 1880, and died in 1882. Then came 
Rev. Alvin Baker as a "supply" who continued the charge 
for two years, until 1882. The Rev. Levi P. Crawford who 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 309 




310 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 




METHODIST CHURCH AFTER WINDSTORM 
December 10-11, 1891 



had come to Pasadena 
from Illinois, upon 
recommendation of 
some members who 
had heard him preach, 
began his services in 
October, 1882, and for 
years was a conspicu- 
ous pulpit figure in 
Pasadena because of 
his commanding pres- 
ence and his forceful 
manner. He had been 
a Chaplain in the 
Union Army during 
the Civil War and was a man of positive views, yet much 
honored. He retired after two years in this church, believing 
himself old enough to do so (he was over sixty then) yet he 
lived for thirty-two years afterwards. Crawford was followed 
by M. N. Cornelius, October 25th, 1885. It was in this year 
that it became patent to the members that a larger and better 
edifice was needed. The question of its location was a burning 
one; the West Side members desiring it to remain where the 
original church was built, or at least in that vicinity. Upon 
this rock the congregation split ; but at a meeting of the mem- 
bers September 30th, 1885, a majority voted to build a new 
church in a location more central in the now widespread 
colony. In consequence of this action the congregation became 
divided, a portion of them withdrew from the church, and later 
established the First Congregational Church and built a 
building at the corner of California Stret and Pasadena Ave- 
nue. The last sermon in the old church was delivered by Rev. 
Cornelius November 8th, 1885. In the meantime the trustees — 
or those who had gone with the trekkers — had purchased a lot 
on Colorado Street (where the Federal building stands) and 
moved the old church building thereon. This building became 
incorporated into the newer edifice — built the following year, 
and thus lost its identity forever. 

The new and greater structure that was erected, was be- 
lieved to be good enough for the coming generation. It cost 
about $50,000 and its members felicitated themselves upon 
their great prosperity. Dr. Ormiston succeeded Cornelius in 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 311 

1889, and was in tnrn followed by Rev. N. G. Fife in 1891. 
But "progress" laid its hand npon that edifice. Fine as it 
was, it must give place to clamoring business which was in- 
vading its vicinity. An exchange was made for the property 
in 1910, when the corner now occupied was secured together 
with a large sum — a nucleus for a yet finer edifice. Today 
the result stands in the magnificent and imposing building, 
perhaps the finest church edifice in the West; costing with 
lot, about $300,000. Rev. Robert Freeman is now pastor of 
this church and Rev. John J. Blue assistant pastor. 

Anothek "Fikst" Chukch — The Methodist 

The history of the founding of the first Methodist church 
in the Colony is equally interesting with its sister organiza- 
tion, just recited. As has been written, the colonists united 
in the early days in " union" services, under the same roof. 
No orthodoxy or sectarian creed interfered with the free- 
dom of these services, for we perceive that when man reverts 
to the primitive, he discards all but the essentials, and sheds 
the garb of irrelevant dogma. So, therefore, Methodists, 
Presbyterians, Episcopalians and others, met together in 
amicable services; at least for a time. The time came in 
1875, when the Presbyterians found themselves strong 
enough to walk their independent way. Then the Methodist 
brethren thought they too must have their own house of 
worship, and being fairly well represented in numbers they 
fell to, and began a movement to acquire their own domicile. 
On the occasion of organizing a Methodist "class" in the 
Colony, April 18th, 1875, eleven members subscribed. I. N. 
Mundell was appointed class leader. At this meeting the 
question of building a church was considered and those 
present subscribed $1000 on the spot. The Rev. J. M. Camp- 
bell of Los Angeles, preached the first sermon to the Meth- 
odists of the Colony March 7th, 1875, in the schoolhouse. The 
first pastor assigned to duty for this organization was the 
Rev. F. D. Bovard of Los Angeles, who preached his first 
sermon in the Colony July 18th, 1875, of that denomination. 
Pasadena was part of the Los Angeles Conference district in 
1875, and in September of that year Rev. C. W. Tarr was 
appointed as regular pastor for the Colony congregation, 
preaching on alternate weeks with the Presbyterians, as 
heretofore stated. Reverend Tarr continued until 1876 resign- 



312 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

ing in the spring of that year, owing to ill health. The Eev. 
Charles Schilling was called and preached his first sermon 
July 2nd, 1876. It was at this time that Union services were 
discontinued and separate services were held by each reli- 
gions body. Business conditions all over Southern California 
were in a bad state at this time, and interfered with the 
project; nevertheless, the Methodists went ahead with much 
energy and succeeded in raising sufficient funds for a start, 
P. M. Green, D. H. Pike and Eev. Charles Schilling comprised 
the committee appointed for the purpose of securing funds. 
A very modest building was erected, and on January 7th, 
1877, it was formally dedicated. This building was located 
on South Orange Grove Avenue near Palmetto Drive (west 
side). It was moved to a lot on West Colorado Street in 
1884 where it remained for years, then sold to the Universal- 
ists. Its subsequent travels are related elsewhere. 

The present First Methodist Church structure was built 
to meet the pressing demands for more commodious and more 
central accommodations. In the passing years the congrega- 
tion had grown with the Colony. Alhambra and Pasadena 
were served by the same pastor, the Eev. F. S. Woodcock 
being in charge in 1878-79. There were 39 members only, on 
the latter date. Eev. E. S. Chase succeeded Woodcock; and 
in September, 1879, Eev. E, W. C. Farnsworth succeeded 
Chase, having also charge of both pastorates for the ensuing 
two years — '80- '82, and then being assigned to Pasadena 
alone — in 1883. The Eeverend Farnsworth was a man of 
gentle and affable manner and of literary tastes. He it was, 
who wrote Pasadena's first history, "A Southern California 
Paradise," in 1883, and thus did much to spread the fame 
of this land. 

In September, 1883, Eev. J. B. Green succeeded Farns- 
worth and remained until September, 1884, when the Eev. A. 
W. Bunker assumed charge. It was at this time that the 
congregation decided it must have better quarters and after 
a Sunday exhortation by Eev. J. G. Miller, February 7th, 
$7000 was pledged for this purpose — Miller heading the list. 
It was estimated that $15,000 would be sufficient. A lot on 
the corner of Colorado Street and Marengo Avenue was 
purchased and work was begun on the new church, the foun- 
dation being laid April 16th, 1886, the foundation stone being 
donated by Alex. F. Mills and the cabinet enclosed in it by 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 313 

Frank D. Stevens. The boom having arrived by this time, 
the lot on West Colorado Street was sold for $6000. On 
March 20th, 1887, the new chnrch was dedicated, free of debt. 
This building was of frame, and was replaced by the present 
brownstone edifice, costing $75,000, in 1901, being dedicated 
December 7th of that year, Rev. J. M. Hnston preaching the 
dedicatory sermon. 

The Methodists desired a hall for large gatherings, and 
in 1888 bnilt the bnilding known as the Tabernacle, on a lot 
adjoining the church, at a cost of over $10,000. P. F. Bresee 
became pastor in 1886 and continued his ministrations for 
four years. Bresee afterwards founded the Church of the 
Nazarenes in Los Angeles, which was the precursor of the 
Nazarene University in Pasadena. The present pastor is 
Rev. Merle N. Smith, succeeding Rev. Matt S. Hughes, who 
was elevated to a Bishopric in 1916. 

Othee Denominations 

This history has been precise regarding the founding of 
Pasadena's two first churches because of the peculiar interest 
attending them as " pioneer" houses of worship and in cir- 
cumstances out of ordinary course. The scope of this work 
will not permit other than a brief mention of the many de- 
nominations which followed and which have made this city 
almost a City of Churches, with its prospering religious 
bodies and graceful buildings to house them. Without taking 
them in any special order one may at least read with interest 
of their humble beginnings so far as may be related. Un- 
fortunately specific data has been, in some instances, unob- 
tainable by the author, although application in writing or 
otherwise was made in every case. 

All Saints Episcopal 

This was one of the earliest churches established in Pasa- 
dena. In its beginning, services were held in the Central 
schoolhouse on the Southwest corner of Colorado Street and 
Fair Oaks Avenue. (Later the services were held in Wil- 
liams Hall). This was in 1882. These preliminary services 
were conducted by Dean Trew, rector of the Episcopal 
Church at San Gabriel. In those first days C. C. Brown was 
wont to drive his little pinto pony about the Colony on Sun- 
day mornings, gathering up the parishioners. That was 



314 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Brown's kindly way. He is the only one now living, who was 
enrolled as a member at that time. In 1886 a neat little edifice 
was built on the northeast corner of Worcester Avenue and 
Colorado Street, and Rev. A. W. McNab was rector in charge. 
In 1888 the present building was built on North Euclid Ave- 
nue, and the abandoned church on the corner sold to the Con- 
gregationalists and moved by them to Raymond and Logan 
Streets, North Pasadena, where it yet stands remodeled and 
enlarged. In 1909 the congregation called Rev. Leslie E. 
Learned, D. D., as its pastor and he has remained in constant 
attention ever since, filling more than a pastor's place by de- 
voting considerable attention to civic affairs. His aptness in 
public speaking has given him a place as one of the orators 
of the city. There is a social club connected with the All 
Saints Church, devoted as its charter states, to the better 
acquaintanceship of its men members. Programs of various 
kinds carry out the scheme planned, and make of it a popular 
society. 

First Baptist — "Strangers Sabbath Home" 
One of Pasadena's earliest churches, organized November 
14th, 1883, electing Rev. S. S. Fisk pastor. The members met 
in Good Templars Hall in the library building until some 
time in 1885, when services were held in Williams Hall. Rev- 
erend Fisk resigned and the services were conducted by sup- 
ply, until 1886. In this year a lot was purchased at the corner 
of Holly Street and Fair Oaks Avenue and work begun upon 
a church building, which was occupied in September. It was 
dedicated February 27th, 1887. A new building was erected 
in 1906 at the corner of Marengo Avenue and Union Street, 
at which time Rev. Albert Hatcher Smith became pastor. He 
was succeeded by Rev. Selden W. Cummings who is present 

pastor. i i : : • i • -r~n^ 

First Universalist 

The foundations of the Universalist Church were laid, 
when, in January 16th, 1885, a meeting was held in Williams 
Hall by a few interested people of liberal faith. Not all of 
them were attached to the doctrines of this church. At this 
meeting Caroline A. Soule, a missionary, preached the first 
Universalist sermon preached in Pasadena. Miss Soule was 
at the time the guest of Thomas Nelmes. Byron 0. Clarke 
paid the expenses of this meeting and of another in the same 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL. AND PERSONAL 315 

place, under the same pastor. In this manner Caroline Sonle 
became the first woman who preached a sermon of any kind in 
Pasadena. Notably, also, Miss Florence E. Kollock was the 
first regular occupant — and the only one thus far — of any 
pulpit in Pasadena, filling the rostrum of this same organiza- 
tion after it had built a church, from 1904 to 1906. "Father" 
Throop had been living in Los Angeles at the time but was 
largely instrumental in organizing this church and obtaining 
a building for it, coming over with Miss Kollock from Los 
Angeles, and searching the town for Universalists. Seven 
only, were discovered in the quest, but enough to make 
a beginning, and a lot was purchased on the corner of 
Fair Oaks Avenue and Chestnut Street and the church in- 
corporated January 19th, 1887. Then they bought the little 
Methodist Church building — the first built of its kind in the 
Colony. It had been moved by this time to West Colorado 
Street. This building was again moved to its new location 
and on Easter Sunday 1887, the first Universalist sermon was 
preached in it by Eev. E. L. Conger, who was regularly called 
to its pastorate soon afterwards. In the same year a move- 
ment for a larger house of worship was begun, a lot pur- 
chased on Eaymond Avenue and Chestnut Street, and on July 
22nd, 1888, was sufficiently completed to hold services in the 
vestry. On March 31st, 1889, the church was completed and 
the congregation met in the main building. At that time 
there was a debt of $28,800 remaining. The building cost 
$56,000, — more than half of which was contributed by 
"Father" Throop. Formal dedication took place April 13th, 
1890. The organ, costing $5,000, a memorial to the good 
services of Father Throop, was paid for by private subscrip- 
tions, largely through the efforts of B. O. Kendall, who has 
long been an active worker in the church. The present pastor 
is C. F. Henry who was called to the pastorate in 1916. An 
associated organization with the church is the Universalist 
Club, which holds regular monthly meetings in the basement 
during the winter season, at which topics of public interest 
are discussed. 

The First Congregational 

When the Presbyterians decided to find a new home for 
their congregation, there occurred some difference of opinion 
as to the removal of the church building, the result of which 



316 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

was that part of the congregation moved with the chnrch 
building to Worcester Avenue and these established their 
church as related. The balance of the congregation, now a 
homeless body, formed a new church organization which was 
called the " First Congregational Church.' ' The old church 
building having been moved away, the now homeless ones 
sought other places of meeting. 

The first meeting was held in a store room on Colorado 
Street and the first date of assembling May 10th, 1885. Af- 
terwards, the schoolhouse then standing on Columbia Hill 
(the present residence of C. D. Daggett) was secured for 
meetings and they were held there. Rev. Arthur Smith, a 
missionary, conducted them until 1886. In December of that 
year Eev. D. D. Hill became pastor. In 1886 funds were 
raised, a lot purchased on the corner of California Street and 
Pasadena Avenue, and a building erected thereon at a cost of 
$35,000. 

But nothing could stem the moving tide of population, 
another schism was at hand and presently there arose a de- 
mand for a home for the congregation more conveniently sit- 
uated for the main body of its members. Hence came about 
another secession — the majority deciding to build on the East 
side, but generously permitting the remaining members to 
retain the church premises — incidentally, assuming a mort- 
gage of $10,000. The seceding membership proceeded to 
build a structure for their uses on South Marengo Avenue. 
Rev. Robert R. Meredith had become pastor in 1903, and 
through his energy, and popularity as a preacher, was 
largely instrumental in building up a prospering congrega- 
tion. 

The first services of this body were held in the Y. M. C. 
A. hall on Raymond Avenue and there continued during the 
building of the church. On the first Sunday in January in 
1904, the Sunday School room was sufficiently completed to 
occupy, and was used then and thereafter — until March 
18th, 1905 — when the new building was completed and dedi- 
cated. Dr. Meredith resigned in 1911 and is now the Dean 
of Pasadena pastors. 

Rev. Daniel F. Fox succeeded Doctor Meredith and has 
maintained the popularity of the church, being a man of 
eloquence and good works. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 317 

The Neighbobhood Chubch 

The Neighborhood Church is the relic of the two secession 
movements just related. But as it had a vigorous constitu- 
tion it survived the troublous fortunes that divided the mem- 
bership and has become a real neighborhood power, justify- 
ing its name. 

When the last secession occurred, in 1892, a new organiza- 
tion was perfected called as above stated, and succeeded to 
the church property. But many extensive improvements 
have been made on the premises inside and out. 

The Rev. L. Potter Hitchcock has been the moving spirit 
in these transformations since his accession to the church, 
in 1909. 

The Neighbobhood Club House 

This Club House was a memorial to Mrs. G. Eoscoe 
Thomas by her husband, a member of the parish, who in 
1914 built it at a cost of $10,000. It is used for neighborhood 
meetings where church and social assemblies take place; in 
fact, is a center of usefulness for the community. 

Lake Avenue Congbegational 

Beginning, modestly, in 1895, when organized as a Sunday 
School, the Lake Avenue Congregational Church has shown 
much progress. With a membership accretion, a car barn 
on Lake Avenue and East Orange Grove Avenue was utilized 
November 10th of that year; and on September 6th, 1896, a 
chapel was finished and occupied — the next progressive step. 
On November 25th, 1896, a church organization was affected 
with thirty-five charter members, under the administration 
of Eev. H. Gr. Smead. 

A lot was donated by Wm. Waterhouse in 1898, also 
material and labor by other parishioners, and a chapel dedi- 
cated free from debt September 15th of the same year. 

Continued increase in membership demanded more room 
and a new edifice was completed and dedicated May 20th, 
1906, at a cost of $14,000. Eev. Allen Hastings succeeded 
Smead in 1897 and continued one year. He was succeeded 
by Eev. S. Gr. Emerson, who continued as pastor until May 
24th, 1908, being followed by Eev. J. H. Lash, who is the 
present pastor. The membership is over 300. 



318 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The Pilgrim Congregational 
(formerly north congregational) 

Numerous Congregationalists residing in North Pasadena 
found it inconvenient to go to the parent church (on Cali- 
fornia Street) in 1887 — before the time of street cars and 
automobiles in Pasadena. They therefore met in a neighbor- 
ly meeting in that year, in a barn on North Fair Oaks Ave- 
nue — December 18th, it was, and decided to form a church 
organization of their own. A hall was rented and Eev. E. 
Bickford secured to preach to them and he continued to do 
so until 1888 when Rev. H. T. Staats was invited to become 
their pastor and was regularly engaged in July, 1888. 
In May, 1891, a church was organized with seventeen mem- 
bers, and purchased the building outgrown by the Universal- 
ists (the old Methodist Church of Colony days). This build- 
ing was destroyed by the wind storm of 1891. Then the 
Episcopalian Church building on Colorado Street was bought 
and moved to the site owned by the church, remodeled and 
enlarged to meet requirements. When in course of time the 
Eev. Staats retired from active service he was succeeded by 
Rev. George M. Morrison. Reverend Morrison resigned in 
1917 and in October of the same year Rev. Montague A. Ship- 
man was called to fill his place. 

Lake Avenue Methodist 

In the boom days of 1887 a Methodist Church was started 
in a store building on North Lake Avenue, but with the re- 
moval of many families after the breaking of the boom, the 
work was abandoned. In 1901 the Christian Chapel on Lake, 
just south of Colorado, was purchased by Dr. C. A. Briggs 
and other members of First Church, and the Rev. S. M. Fair- 
field was given charge of it and of Lamanda Park, the work 
being conducted as a mission of First Church. The next year 
F. G-. H. Stevens was in charge of the Lamanda and the 
Mission of Lake Avenue. 

In the spring of 1904 the Rev. V. Hunter Brink was ap- 
pointed as pastor of Lake Avenue, and on July 28th or- 
ganized the new church with sixty members and ten proba- 
tioners. 

In November of that year the Southeast corner of Lake 
and Colorado was purchased and in December of 1905, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 319 

ground was broken for the new church and it was finished at 
a total cost of $50,671, the formal opening taking place April 
28th, 1907. 

F. G. H. Stevens was appointed pastor at that Conference 
session. The church was dedicated October 4th, 1914, by 
Bishop McConnel. 

There are now over 850 members. C. M. Christ is the 
present pastor, having succeeded the Rev. Stevens in 1917. 

Lincoln Avenue Methodist 

Beginning with meetings held at the residence of Rev. R. 
L. Bruce on North Orange Avenue in 1898, the Lincoln Ave- 
nue Church became in a short time an independently organ- 
ized church body. 

This organization was perfected April 17th, 1898, and 
efforts were made at once to obtain the necessary funds to 
build. They were successful, as is shown by the present at- 
tractive edifice at the corner of Lincoln and North Orange 
Grove Avenues. The Rev. Bruce became the first pastor. 
M. W. Davis became superintendent of the Sabbath School 
then, and has so continued ever since. Rev. Dr. Mather was 
for some years, and until he became presiding Elder, a pop- 
ular pastor in this fold. He was succeeded by Rev. Walter C. 
Loomis, who assumed charge in 1917. 

German Methodist Episcopal 

The few German families who resided in Pasadena in its 
early days, began holding services at the homes of their 
people and participated in services under the direction of 
Rev. G. H. Bolinger who was presiding Elder of the district. 
This beginning was in 1882. In the fall of that year a church 
organization was perfected at the home of C. H. Biedebach, 
near Lamanda Park, Mr. Biedebach being local preacher for 
a time. On December 23th, 1886, the church body was in- 
corporated under the name of Emanuel M. E. Church and 
a lot purchased on Worcester Avenue. In the following year 
a church was built there. The present pastor is Rev. William 
Rogatzky and the membership 125. 

Washington Street Methodist Episcopal 
(formerly north pasadena methodist) 

Was organized in 1888 as a Mission, and met in a hall on 



320 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

North Fair Oaks Avenue. In 1892 the building belonging to 
the Free Methodist Church on Pepper Street, was bought and 
occupied by this body until the present church was built in 
1905 on East Washington Street. 

Rev. C. F. Seitter is pastor at this time. The membership 
is 440. 

Altadena Methodist Episcopal 

Was organized in February, 1907, with Pastor A. T. 
Nichols in charge. In 1908 the present church building was 
erected on Santa Clara Avenue and Caleveras Street and 
met with satisfactory progress. 

The present membership is 73 and the present pastor 
Rev. W. E. Malan. 

First Free Methodist 

In the year 1888 services were held in a tent on the corner 
of Pasadena Avenue and Green Street, Rev. C. B. Ebey in 
charge, and on June 17th of the same year, an organization 
was perfected by the above name. Rev. Ebey was engaged 
as first pastor. This tent was later moved to North Pasa- 
dena and soon thereafter a neat church was built there. Still 
later — in 1892 — this church was sold to the North Pasadena 
Methodist Church organization and a new building built at 
the present site, 306 North Fair Oaks Avenue. 

The membership is now 100 and the present pastor Rev. 
W. W. Vinson. 

Swedish Methodist 

Established October 27th, 1906, and services supplied 
from Los Angeles for a time. In 1909 a comfortable church 
building was built on Villa Street and Summit Avenue and 
Rev. J. P. Waxlberg engaged as pastor. In 1912 Rev. Gr. E. 
Kallstedt became pastor and continues this charge. A 
Dorcas Society is entertained by Miss Ida Berglund in the 
church parlors each Thursday. 

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran 

(ENGLISH) 

Organized in 1903, with Rev. B. W. H. Frederick as its 
first pastor. At first it was a mission, but a church was built 
in 1905 and regular services held thereafter. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 321 

First Church of Christ Scientist 

The development of the First Church of Christ Scientist 
began about 1896, when those interested held meetings at a 
home on South Holliston Avenue. In the following year 
meetings were held in the Gr. A. R. Hall, and in March an 
organization was effected, the First Church of Christ 
Scientist being then organized with twenty-two members. On 
October 1st, 1899, owing to increasing membership, meetings 
were held in the Auditorium and a fund was begun. A read- 
ing room was opened in a building on the corner of Colorado 
Street and Eaymond Avenue in 1901, and in the following 
year a lot on the corner of Colorado Street and Oakland Ave- 
nue was purchased and the first chapel built there and occu- 
pied, in March 1903. This becoming inadequate, it was en- 
larged in 1905, then being sufficient to accommodate over 500. 

Then, in 1907, the present site was purchased and prepa- 
rations for a new edifice begun in 1908, the corner stone being 
laid March 30th, 1909, and building occupied November 20th, 
1910, free from debt. This splendid building of Greek Ionic 
architecture, is a notable landmark and cost over $100,000. 
It will seat 1400 people. 

Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian 

This congregation was organized April 5th, 1914, under 
the guidance of Eev. J. Gr. Blue. The church was finished 
and dedicated April 19th, 1916, Rev. Eobert Freeman con- 
ducting the services. Eev. J. E. Pratt was called to the 
pastorate and is the present pastor. 

Washington Christian Church 

Was the result of neighborhood meetings at the home of 
Mr. and Mrs. S. D. Ulrich in 1914. At first a Mission was 
established and supplied by Eev. W. C. Hull, meetings being 
held at Longfellow School. Funds being raised, a beginning 
was made upon a church building on North Mentor Avenue, 
which was sufficiently advanced for dedication of the Sunday 
school rooms in July, 1915; Eev. J. D. McKnight, who was 
killed in an accident in September, 1917, preaching the dedi- 
cation sermon. Eev. W. C. Hull has continued as pastor to 
the present time. The membership is about 80. 



322 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Central Christian 
(disciples of christ) 

Organized in 1884 and incorporated May 17th, 1886. First 
bnilt a small church on Delacy Street, but it "went the way" 
in the 1891 wind storm, which had churches as its "first 
choice." The building was completely demolished and some 
of it widely scattered by the fury of the winds. But the 
"Christians" were not scattered, and continued to meet in 
a store building on North Fair Oaks Avenue until 1892, when 
a suitable church was completed on the corner of Fair Oaks 
Avenue and Mary Street with Rev. B. F. Coulter as pastor. 

In 1907 they built a fine concrete stone edifice on the cor- 
ner of Marengo Avenue and Walnut Street. 

The present pastor is Rev. Frank G. Tyrrell, under whose 
ministrations it is liberal in its doctrines and broad in its 
policies. 

Calvary Baptist 

This church was begun as a mission, in a store building on 
East Colorado Street in 1912, and developed into a church, a 
building being erected on North Holliston Avenue. 

Rev. B. B. Jacques was the original pastor and has con- 
tinued in charge of the pastorate since its beginning. It has 
a membership of 361. 

United Presbyterian 

This church had its beginning in 1895, an organization 
being effected in November of that year under the direction 
of Rev. E. S. McKitrick. Services were regularly held in the 
G. A. R. hall on East Colorado Street, but plans to build a 
church were made and carried out, Dr. McKitrick laboring 
assiduously to this end. 

In 1896 the building was begun on East Colorado Street 
and carried to sufficient completion to permit services to be 
held in the Sunday School, beginning in June 1897. But the 
main hall of this building was not completed for occupation 
until May, 1903. 

Dr. McKitrick resigned in June, 1902, on account of his 
health, but has continued since then in charge of the Sunday 
School and in other church work. The present pastor is Rev. 
J. W. Ashwood and the membership 175. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 323 

St. Andrews — Catholic 

In 1886 the few Catholic families that then resided in 
Pasadena met for services in the Los Angeles House, owned 
by Isaac Banta and held mass there. This was the initia- 
tive of a church organization. At a later meeting held at the 
residence of G. T. Stamm on South Marengo Avenue, May 
23rd, 1886, and later in the schoolhouse, it was decided to 
raise funds to build a meeting place, and with such success 
that a lot was purchased on South Pasadena Avenue and Bel- 
fontaine Street and a plain frame building completed upon it, 
the first services being held there December 18th, 1887, Rev. 
Father Hartnett officiating. It was named St. Andrews. 

This building was sold — when a better church was built 
in 1895 — to S. L. Addeman, who moved it to a lot on West 
California Street and remodeled it into a residence. The 
prosperity of the church increased, and in 1899 a larger and 
finer brick structure was built on North Fair Oaks Avenue, 
also a parish house adjoining. 

Rev. P. F. Farrelly succeeded Father Hartnett and be- 
came popular in his public relations as well as in church 
affairs. He died during a trip to his home in Ireland in 1911, 
and was succeeded by Rev. Wm. F. Quinlan, who is the pres- 
ent pastor. The membership is now 2500. 

Fkiends Meeting 
(first established) 

The first meeting of Friends held in Pasadena that was 
of a formal character occurred at the home of William Sharp- 
less on North Los Robles Avenue in June, 1882. This meet- 
ing was in charge of Adonijah Gregory of Sierra Madre, who 
had been holding such meetings at his own home there. Mr. 
Gregory was one of Sierra Madre 's original settlers and with 
his wife (now living at the age of 87 in Pasadena), exercised 
much influence in that new settlement in its formative stage. 

Mrs. Lydia Sharpless, wife of William Sharpless, died 
recently at Whittier at the age of 106 years. In 1884 a small 
building was built on North Marengo Avenue and was used 
by this organization. In 1886 a new building was built at 
Marengo and Mountain Street (East Orange Grove Avenue) 
which, in 1894, was moved to Villa Street and Raymond Ave- 
nue and enlarged. This church still enjoys its prosperous 
career in charge of Rev. Charles S. White. 



324 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Orange Grove Friends 
(hicksite) 

Belonging to the Concord Quarterly and Philadelphia 
Yearly Meetings, was organized December 8th, 1907, and met 
in homes of members, until they procured a meeting house 
at 520 East Orange Grove Avenue. The first meeting was 
held here February 28th, 1909. Levi P. Taylor is clerk ; John 
E. Carpenter is elder and Ella M. Hunt, correspondent. 
Services are held each first day, and monthly meetings first 
day of each month. 

Friends Meeting 
(villa and galena) 

This body of Friends was regularly organized January 
19th, 1895, but the members had been meeting at various 
houses for two or three years previously — originally at the 
home of Wm. Penn Evans on Los Eobles Avenue. In 1894 a 
meeting place was built at Galena Avenue and Villa Street, 
Mary Lee being first minister and Abram Cowgill secretary.- 

The records show that the official date of organization was 
January 19th, 1895. The membership has grown to about 
150 and is led by Minister Nathan Pinson. 

Church of the Brethren 
(misnamed dunkards) 

Organized April 14th, 1905. First pastor and general 
overseer, W. E. Trostle. This church body has built a church 
at the corner of Herkimer Street and Hudson Avenue and 
has a membership of about 100. 

Nazarene University Church 

Was organized May 27th, 1917 — having now a member- 
ship of 275. Its first meetings were held in the Tabernacle 
Hall of Nazarene University on Hill Avenue with Seth C. 
Eees in charge and is still under his pastorate. 

First Church of the Nazarene 

Located on North Fair Oaks Avenue and Mary Street. 
In charge of Eev. A. O. Henricks, pastor. The date of organ- 
ization is October 9th, 1905 ; first pastor Eev. J. W. Goodwin. 
The house of worship was purchased from the First Christian 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 325 

congregation when it built anew in 1905. Prior to that meet- 
ings were held in a room in Sonth Fair Oaks Avenne. The 
membership is 300. 

Scott Chapel Methodist Episcopal 
(colored) 

Aside of its own attending interest, this chnrch possesses 
historic association on account of the building occupied by it. 
This building was, over 30 years ago, located on Columbia 
Street on its South Pasadena side, and owned by the Calvary 
Presbyterian Church, now out of existence. The Scott or- 
ganization purchased the little meeting house and moved it 
to its present location on South Fair Oaks Avenue. 

The present pastor is Eev. E. W. Kinchen. 

Mexican M. E. Mission 

Was built in 1916 to carry on missionary service among 
the Mexicans who mostly reside in its vicinity at Broadway 
and Bitzman Street. Eegular services are there conducted 
by Eev. Francisco Olazabal, the pastor in charge. 

Grace Tabernacle 
(colored) 

This church was organized and built by Nazarenes in 1914. 
In time differences ensued between members on theological 
grounds, and the congregation was divided, the Nazarenes 
seceding. The church has a small membership but is prosper- 
ing fairly under the pastorship of Mrs. M. E. Palmer, assisted 
by the Eev. E. H. Hunter. 

Metropolitan Baptist 

(colored) 

Was organized June 5th, 1916, with Eev. J. B. Bushell as 
first pastor. Members first met in Turners Hall and in 1911 
succeeded in building their own church building on Waver ly 
Drive. The Eev. W. H. Hughes is pastor at this writing. 

First African M. E. Church 

The story of the founding of the first church built by the 
colored people in Pasadena, is of more than passing interest 
because of the difficulties that beset the little band of earnest 
men and women engaged in the endeavor. Many obstacles 



326 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

and much hostility had to be overcome, one instance of which 
was an effort to burn their house of worship, and also efforts 
to prevent attempted purchases of sites. These attempts 
were met with determination and frustrated, happily, and the 
first church is now a prosperous congregation with property 
valued at more than $10,000, free from debt. Some of those 
whose efforts made this success possible are William Prince, 
Joseph Burch, Silas Carnahan, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Holmes, 
Mrs. Sadie Wright, Mrs. Cora Campbell, Mrs. James Cole- 
man and others just as active. 

The first place of meeting was in the house of Joseph 
Holmes at 140 South Vernon Avenue, and the little congre- 
gation met there for three years. Then, in 1888, the meeting 
place was changed to the home of Silas Carnahan at the foot 
of Raymond Hill. 

The first pastor was Rev. J. R. McLain. Meetings were 
held in various homes, vacant stores, and halls, until finally, 
a lot was purchased on North Fair Oaks Avenue and an old 
barn was also purchased and moved to the lot and made hab- 
itable. This was in 1892 — the church had been incorporated 
in 1889. Services were continued here, some improvements 
and enlargements having been made to the building, until 
1910, when the property was sold at a handsome profit, artel 
the present site on North Vernon Avenue purchased and a 
substantial church building erected upon it. The Rev. W. S. 
Dyett has been successfully ministering to the congregation 
since 1912. 

Friendship Baptist 
(colored) 

Organized in 1893 with Rev. J. M. Fowler as first pastor 
and Reuben Scott as first deacon. A church was built on 
South Vernon Avenue, where services are in charge of Rev. 
J. M, Riddle as pastor. 

The Progressive Spiritual 

Holds services in a hall at 31% North Fair Oaks Avenue 
under the leadership of Rev. B. F. Austin, who is the pastor. 
A fair sized congregation is under this charge. 

Peniel Mission 

The Peniel Mission has for years performed its humble 
work and in its unostentatious way accomplished much Chris- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 327 

tian and altruistic work. Its headquarters are at this time 
located at 1295 North Fair Oaks Avenue. Originally in a 
store room on South Fair Oaks Avenue, its zealous followers 
preached their gospel until trade forced them elsewhere. 

Westminstee Pbesbyteeian 

This church held its first service July 1st, 1906, and was 
organized with 51 members, June 14th, 1908, under the 
pastorate of Eev. W. E. Dodge. Its first meetings were held 
in a building at the corner of Lake Avenue and Claremont 
Street. A church building was erected at the corner of Lake 
Avenue and Woodbury Road soon afterward; that now 
pleasantly houses its 247 members. The present pastor is 
Rev. C. A. Spaulding. 

Seventh Day Adventist 

Organized June 1888 in a tent on Villa Street by Elder 
Briggs. In the same year a small church was built on Waver- 
ly Drive. In 1893 a larger one was built on the corner of 
Mountain Street and Summit Avenue. The present pastor is 
Volney H. Lucas. 

Emmanuel Lutheean 
(formerly german lutheran) 

First meetings held in 1893 and organization completed 
November 17th, of that year. The first pastor was Rev. 
George Saager. In 1894 a church was completed at Walnut 
Street and Vernon Avenue, which was afterwards moved to 
North Marengo Avenue. The present pastor is Rev. W. H. 
Seeger. 

Fiest Day Advent 
(first advent christian) 

This church organization was effected in October, 1894, 
when Elder Wilkinson began services in a tent on North Fair 
Oaks Avenue, later preaching in the Gr. A. R. Hall. The 
church was regularly organized April 19th, 1895, and built a 
church on North Marengo Avenue. The present pastor is 
Rev. Miles Grant Nelson. 

Pentacostal Assembly 

Was organized in June, 1907. Meetings were first held in 
a tent on Fair Oaks Avenue under the ministrations of Rev. 



328 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

A. H. Post. When the Lake Avenue Methodists vacated their 
chapel on South Lake Avenue, it was rented, first to another 
church body, then to the Pentecostal Church, which organ- 
ization meets there now. Rev. 0. P. Tingle has been pastor 
of this church for the past four years. 

St. Maeks Episcopal 

Originally a Mission of All Saints, organized as such June 
3rd, 1906, in charge of Eev. Harry Thompson, Assistant at 
All Saints ; it became a separate parish March 6th, 1914. Eev. 
A. L. Hall, who had succeeded Rev. Harry Thompson as As- 
sistant in All Saints, became rector of St. Marks and still 
continues in charge of this parish. The church building was 
completed in 1915. There are at present 130 communicants. 

Holiness Chuech 

The worshipers in this faith began meetings as early as 
1884 in a plain little building they had erected on North El 
Molino Avenue, later moving to a building on South Fair 
Oaks Avenue. Rev. J. H. Clark was their first pastor. A 
new building was erected on South Pasadena Avenue with 
Rev. E. A. Ross pastor. 

Trinity Evangelical Church 

Located at Los Robles Avenue and "Walnut Street and 
progressing in a favorable way. Rev. W. H. Dew is pastor. 
The membership is 125. 

Christian and Missionary Alliance* 

Hudson Avenue and First Street. Rev. Geo. W. Davis, 
pastor. 

First Evangelical Lutheran* 

Located at 375 E. Orange Grove Avenue. Rev. A. P. F. 
Hansen, pastor. 

Swedish Lutheran Trinity* 

Located at 560 E. Orange Grove Avenue. Rev. Luther N. 
Dahlsten, pastor. 

St. Johns German Evangelical Lutheran* 
On E. Orange Grove Avenue. Rev. G. F. Brink, pastor. 

* Information not furnished. 




CHAPTER XXXVII 

TRANSPORTATION RAILROADS AND TROLLEYS 

HE pioneers from Indiana and Iowa, and other far- 
away places, did not come to the new settlement 
in de luxe trains and in coaches of steel and mahog- 
any draped with silk and damask and velvet. There 
was no way to its gates direct. One must come by 
way of San Francisco, if by rail, thence transfer southward 
by a dinky little steamer to San Pedro, where even that little 
boat couldn't land at the wharf, because the water was not 
then deep enough ! I speak of 1874, and even for years there- 
after. Now, a splendid harbor garners great ships from 
across deep seas. But the day of the prairie schooner was 
passing even then, and the Santa Fe trail was becoming grass 
grown through disuse. Steamers plowed their way from 
Panama and brought their passengers that way also. 

So the traveler, seeking the Indiana Colony, in time found 
himself in San Pedro, and, if persistent, in Los Angeles. Then 
— somehow — by buggy or any sort of vehicle he could com- 
mandeer, to the pioneer land. 

In time the Southern Pacific, ever looking for new business 
to conquer, "discovered" the sleepy pueblo of Los Angeles — 
in 1876 — and wakened it to its manifest destiny. That little, 
somnolent burg was scarcely known then to the outside world, 
and was regarded as a mere spot on the map. But the 
Southern Pacific reached out its extending fingers from its 
San Francisco stop and gave it a new impulse. Again, in 
1883, the same railroad, with foresight and growing ambition, 
forged another link in this band of steel and crept up from 
the deserts of Arizona ; spanned the lonesome sand plains and 
desolate valleys, and gave them pulsing wakefulness. With 
the coming of these forerunners of civilization, activity and 
improvement began which later transformed some of these 
desolate places into areas of development and gardens of 
wealth. By the Midas touch of the Rio Colorado a new 
empire was founded and nearby where the western sun dipped 
into the waters of the Pacific an Eden bloomed. 

329 



330 PASADENA— HISTOEICAL AND PERSONAL 

When this transformation began Los Angeles boasted a 
population of 10,000; mostly Mexicans, "noble" red men, 
and a growing number of "Americanos," some of whom 
had left their "home town" for reasons satisfactory to 
themselves, if not to the officers of justice. Los Angeles, 
once a "tough" town, had been slowly acquiring civilized 
methods, certainly the daily murder was out of vogue, and 
the bandit and highwayman stood less in the esteem of his 
fellows. Vasquez — the last of noted outlaws — had met his 
just deserts at the end of a rope in 1874, and no one was 
ambitious to succeed him. 

Affairs were assuming a more modernized appearance, 
the bad man and the bandits retiring gradually, as the proper 
thing to do, the gringo asserting his arrogant way. After the 
beginning of the Indiana Colony, the tourist who, having 
heard some mention of it, desired to arrive there, was impelled 
to hire his own conveyance ; that was before 1876, when D. M. 
Graham put his ponies into action and established the first 
stage line. When Graham tired of this occupation he sold his 
outfit to W. T. Vore (February, 1879). Vore operated the line, 
at first three times a week, then daily, going over to Los An- 
geles in the morning and back in the afternoon. The fare was 
50 cents one way, or round trip 75 cents. When a daily 
mail route was established in 1880 Vore secured the contract. 
C. H. Killgore began a mail line in 1884, putting on a tally-ho. 
Vore afterwards purchased this line and continued both, busi- 
ness then warranting it. Of course this business was given 
up when the railroad came in. 

The growing colony was quite satisfied with a stage for 
a time, it was safe and it was picturesque ; but better and 
quicker service was hoped for. To Stanley P. Jewett, a young 
engineer, there came the idea of a railroad communication 
between Los Angeles and the fertile valley of the San Gabriel ; 
tapping its settlements and growing with them — that was the 
expectation. Jewett lived in the Indiana Colony, where he 
had come in 1879, and had pondered much over this idea. 
It was in 1882 that he broached his plan to J. F. Crank, then 
vice president of the First National Bank of Los Angeles, 
and who lived upon his Fair Oaks Ranch, east of the Colony. 
Through Crank, E. F. Spence, J. E. Hollenbeck and C. H. 
Simpkins, all of Los Angeles, were induced to consider the 
matter. But after meeting together and going into particulars 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 331 

of the scheme, these men, excepting Crank, withdrew from 
further participation in it, but Crank believed in it, and sup- 
ported Jewett, agreeing to go ahead with the project. Sher- 
man Washburn, A. Brigden, W. R. Davis and W. P. Stanley, 
also agreed to engage in the undertaking, and arrangements 
were made for preliminary work, discovering the best route, 
right of way, etc., all of which required time and money. The 
necessary money for beginning the work was raised among 
themselves. 

On August 30th, 1883, the road was incorporated as the 
Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley R. R. Co., with a capital- 
ization of $450,000, and the following first Board of Directors : 
J. F. Crank, President; S. P. Jewett, Vice President; S. Wash- 
burn, Treasurer; W. P. Stanley, Secretary. Stanley shortly 
withdrew and w T as succeeded by J. D. Bicknell of Los Angeles. 
It required courage, and much of it, to undertake such a 
project at that time, as it was not then contemplated that this 
road would become the terminal of a great transcontinental 
line. But these men had the courage and put up the capital 
that was required to make a start. The plans were ready in 
1884 and a right of way partly secured. In July of that year 
the first contract was let for building the road from its 
starting place in Los Angeles to Pasadena. Operations pro- 
ceeded vigorously for a few weeks. Then the contractor 
failed, leaving his affairs tangled and his labor bills and 
supplies unpaid. This was a setback, serious enough; but 
Jewett himself then took charge of the construction, settled 
the accounts, and work was resumed. There was delay of 
course pending these changes. Up to this time, no right of 
way had been acquired into Pasadena, only to the Raymond 
Hill; and the residents began to fear that their town would 
not appear on the folders. In consequence of this apprehen- 
sion, a public meeting was called by the exercised people, 
who passed very urgent resolutions voicing the loudly ex- 
pressed sentiment declaring "the importance of bringing the 
locomotives to our very doors, etc.," all of which is somewhat 
different than some of the expressions now heard, which 
declare that this road is a menace upon our streets and must 
be removed! Much different — but perhaps correct. The 
meeting referred to was held May 27th, 1885. A committee 
consisting of H. W. Magee, C. C. Brown, J. H. Baker, W. H. 
Wiley, S. Townsend, J. P. Woodbury, James Craig, Abbott 



332 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



Kinney and J. W. Hall, was appointed to secure right of way 
and raise some money to aid in this — where a free right of 
way could not be obtained. Messrs. Magee and Kinney were 
made Trustees to hold this right of way until it could be con- 
veyed to the coming road. All of which was in due time per- 
formed according to agreement, and the road, by donation 
and by purchase, secured entry in and through the Colony of 
Pasadena and it was so built. On a certain day in September 
(11th), 1885, the whistle of the first locomotive to enter the 
good town, echoed in every household and sounded its new 
note of progress. The citizens hurried with one accord down 
Colorado Street, to view the iron horse, the first to enter, and 
bid it a merry welcome. Morris W. Eeeder, who died in 
1917 at Lamanda Park, held the throttle, and enjoyed himself 
sounding the shrill jubilation loud and often, until the most 
distant and most inattentive must know that something 
unusual was afoot — as indeed it was. This was preliminary 
only, to the important clay — the sixteenth of the same month — 
which was duly set aside to make formal opening of the 
desired railroad, and give fitting welcome to it. 

On that gala day, everybody, which meant the women folk 
too, entered into the spirit of the occasion with zest and enthu- 
siasm. The track had been laid as far as Colorado Street, 




Celebrating the advent of the first R. R., Sept. 16, 1885 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 333 

a slice of the library lot having been taken for the right of 
way. The Central School lot, adjoining, was the place that 
was fittingly chosen to hold the ceremonies heralding the 
advent of the first "iron horse," and upon this lot a pavilion 
was formed of cypress boughs, and under this green harbor 
long rows of tables were arranged, at one end of which a 
place for the president of the day was established. The sylvan 
boughs protected the guests from the hot September sun and 
gave much attraction to the affair. 

Upon the tables was spread a fine luncheon, provided by 
the purveyors — the ladies of Pasadena — flowers and fruits of 
all kinds gracing the board in splendid profusion. A floral 
emblem in the form of an engine was conspicuous and appro- 
priate. The committee on reception was Hon. H. H. Mark- 
ham, H. W. Magee, P. M. Green, J. E. Clarke, Jabez Banbury, 
0. H. Conger, 0. S. Picher, N. C. Carter (of Sierra Madre), 
E. Williams, James Craig, B. T. Smith and G. W. Wilson. 

Headed by the local band, this committee proceeded by 
train to Los Angeles, and there met a trainload of guests, 
with whom it returned; after which the luncheon was served 
by the ladies. Conspicuous among these were Mrs. Sherman 
Washburn, Mrs. Edson Turner, the Misses Stratton, the 
Misses Ball, Mrs. E. W. Giddings, Miss Clapp and Mrs. Eosen- 
baum. After the collation, Hon. H. H. Markham opened the 
ceremonies by delivering an address of welcome, which was 
responded to by Mayor E. F. Spence of Los Angeles. A 
response for the railroad was made by S. P. Jewett, who had 
done such strenuous work in its behalf, and an address in 
behalf of the Los Angeles Board of Trade was made by 
George H. Bonebrake, its president. "The Press " was the 
subject of Jos. D. Lynches talk, he being the editor of the 
Los Angeles Herald. "The Produce Exchange" by Eugene 
Germain, and also a talk by H. H. Boyce, editor of the Los 
Angeles Express. Others, also, were called upon and made 
interesting remarks. Good humor and happy anticipations 
was the keynote of all addresses, and the confident prophecies 
that Pasadena had begun a new and important era, prevailed. 
A street parade, informal and impromptu, participated in by 
nearly all of the men present, was the conclusion of the cere- 
monies on that eventful day. 

Traffic on the road began on that day also, James Clarke 
being the first customer for business, receiving a consignment 
of grain. 



334 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 




PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 335 

With the opening of business as far as Pasadena, the road 
building did not cease, but was continued eastward and was 
open for business as far as Lamanda Park by November 7th. 
But at this point construction was suspended for a year for 
want of funds; after which it was completed to "Mud 
Springs' ' (now San Dimas), a total length of twenty-eight 
miles. Mud Springs was "nowhere" then, but is now in the 
heart of the Orange Empire, the great citrus producing sec- 
tion of California. At this time, the officers of the road were 
as follows : President, J. F. Crank ; Treasurer, Sherman 
Washburn; General Superintendent, S. P. Jewett; General 
Passenger Agent, for Los Angeles, Louis Blankenhorn ; Road 
Master, W. E. Davis; Paymaster, W. B. Stewart. With the 
development that generally accompanies railroads, came that 
of the Valley and the business of the road grew with fair 
satisfaction to its builders. Looking at it now, it would seem 
to have been a hazardous undertaking for its day, for the 
whole county of Los Angeles (which included Orange County 
then) did not have 30,000 population; while the territory 
traversed by the S. G. V. R. R. did not contain 10,000 persons 
(outside Los Angeles) that could give tribute to the road. But 
the Atlantic & Pacific road, the predecessor to the Santa Fe, 
was heading westward, and needed a seaboard terminal on 
the Pacific. It was the rival of the great and powerful 
Southern Pacific system, which had recently established its 
lines in Southern California and which was jealous of rivalry. 
Each of these roads had farseeing heads and anticipated the 
enormous freight business that the rapidly developing orange 
industry, alone, would mean to the road getting it. The 
Southern Pacific's president, Leland Stanford, was able and 
astute, and when the Los Angeles & San Gabriel Valley road 
was building, had interposed all kinds of obstacles to it. 
Material for its construction, rails, tools, cars, etc., were 
necessarily brought over the Southern Pacific. It was a mat- 
ter of common occurrence to "lose" a carload or more of 
material, and, after weeks of investigation, it would be "dis- 
covered" perhaps in New Orleans, sidetracked and "over- 
looked." These delays and "mistakes," as they were politely 
termed, naturally occasioned much wrath in the breast of the 
builders of the new road. And it was this treatment probably 
that, in the end, cost the Southern Pacific the ownership of 
the San Gabriel Valley road, and thereby, for a time at least, 



336 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

barring any rival in its own field. This is how it happened, 
as related to me by J. F. Crank. Upon an occasion J. F. 
Crank was in New York. The president of the Sant Fe 
(Strong) was in Boston, and the president of the Southern 
Pacific (Stanford) was attending his senatorial duties in 
Washington. On the same day — a Sunday — there came to 
President Crank an invitation from Senator Stanford to visit 
him in Washington, and from President Strong of the Sante 
Fe a request to visit him in Boston. Crank surmised the 
object of these invitations, and he also remembered the ob- 
stacles that had been put in the way of building his line by 
the Southern Pacific, and the many discouragements resulting 
therefrom; and this gave him then his opportunity to "get 
even. ' ' He went to Boston instead of Washington In an hour 
after meeting President Strong he had sold the San Gabriel 
Valley R, R. to the Sante Fe. This is how the little San 
Gabriel Valley railroad became the "Southern California Rail- 
road/' as it was first called by the Santa Fe, for certain busi- 
ness reasons, and ultimately the terminal link in that splendid 
system. J. F. Crank, after selling the road, turned his atten- 
tion to building a street cable car system in Los Angeles, the 
second of the kind in the world; and lost much money in the 
venture. The advent of the railroad in Pasadena, was the 
first real impetus toward the great boom days which followed. 
Pasadena was on the railroad "map" of the country now — 
no mere "Colony," remote from the rest of the earth, but 
getting ready for the settler and the tourist. And the miracu- 
lous two and a half days from Chicago, and three and a half 
from New York was accomplished, which means a neighborli- 
ness and close relationship with East and West; a pleasant 
journey, direct and easy, and a constant invitation to the 
denizen of the frozen East to come and repose under more 
benignant skies, play golf instead of snowball, and motor over 
splendid highways, instead of lounging within the confines of 
overheated clubs. The East had really, at last, discovered 
California ! 

The Terminal 

The Terminal Railroad, now the Los Angeles & Salt Lake 
R. R., was primarily the outcome of a land speculation. 

The Pasadena Improvement Co. — composed principally of 
John P. Woodbury, Fred J. Woodbury and E. C. Webster — 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 337 

was responsible for it, or at least its Pasadena beginning. 
This land company had purchased from the Woodbury 
brothers 1,200 acres in Altadena, including holdings of Col. 
Jabez Banbury and Byron 0. Clark. They appropriated 
from Byron Clark the name he had bestowed upon his own 
lands — Altadena. Altadena was set out to groves, and or- 
chards, and vineyards largely, and made attractive and desir- 
able residence sites, lacking but one thing — accessibility. This 
drawback the syndicate proceeded to overcome by building to 
it a railroad, hence the incorporation of The Altadena Rail- 
road, which was to have its beginning at Raymond Station, 
connecting there with the Sante Fe. Its projectors had even 
greater dreams, or at least one of them had, for I have heard 
John P. Woodbury, its president, express them in tangible 
terms. It was his expectation that this little road would, 
sometime, find a tidewater terminus at Rattlesnake Island, 
near San Pedro, and then become a transcontinental line with 
this, its great trans-Pacific port. With this great ambition, 
terminal facilities were acquired, and today this dream has 
in some measure come true. But the projectors did not live 
to see it, and, as a fact, were overwhelmed financially by this 
undertaking and others incident to it. However, the purpose 
of the local road was realized, for this land company sold 
quickly its Altadena lots, and profited much thereby. This 
occurred in 1887-88, About the same time, a little narrow 
gauge " dummy" road was built from Los Angeles to Gar- 
vanza, Eagle Rock Valley and Glendale ; being operated in a 
feeble way for a time by some land speculators, and was about 
to give up the ghost — if railways have ghosts. This defunct 
road, with its belongings, was purchased by one Captain John 
Cross, a railroad builder of experience, who re-equipped it 
and extended it as far as the Raymond Hill. What more 
natural than that Cross should obtain control of the Altadena 
Road, now a white elephant and money losing concern? 
Captain Cross did, in fact, in pursuance of his plans, first 
lease the Altadena line (and finally purchased it for $80,000) 
— obtaining formal ingress into Pasadena, March 11th, 1890, 
whereat Pasadena rose to acclaim its new enterprise with the 
usual celebration. A banquet was given the worthy Captain 
at the Green Hotel, at which Governor Waterman was a 
guest and the most conspicuous speaker. There was a parade 
of citizens also, for the good people believed that they now had 



338 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

in prospect the hoped for cheap and frequent means of trans- 
portation to the sister City of the Angels — a popular prospect. 
At this time the Pasadena terminus of the road was on West 
Colorado Street, where dune's Theatre stands, a little brick 
building being leased there, with John S. Mills agent in 
charge. The franchise for the Terminal, as it was later called, 
was actually granted to extend from its West Colorado Street 
end, eastward, just north of Colorado and parallel thereto, 
to Fair Oaks, down Fair Oaks to Green, thence west to its 
main line. The part of the line on Fair Oaks and onward was 
never built. Years ago the spur running into Fair Oaks 
Avenue was abandoned, the company being contented with the 
station on its main line on West Colorado Street. It also 
practically abandoned the Altadena Line, excepting a spur 
running into the Arroyo Seco, although the tracks still remain. 
The fare to Los Angeles was fixed by City Ordinance, when 
tlTe franchise was granted, at thirty-five cents each way; but 
in course of time the attorney of the road, Thomas E. Gibbon, 
petitioned the City Trustees for an increase of fare to fifty 
cents, whereat the town arose in wrath and a bitter fight was 
waged before the City Fathers. It was adduced, in behalf of 
the terminal, that it was losing money and, in spite of pro- 
tests, the increase was finally granted. I believe Captain 
C. M. Simpson was the people's champion on this occasion 
and made a sturdy fight to retain the original fare. Alexander 
R. Metcalfe appeared for the road. In 1898, E. C. Webster 
appeared before the Council, during the Terminal fight for 
increased fares, asking for a franchise for the Los Angeles 
Electric Railway, to enter Pasadena. In return for this privi- 
lege he offered to sell six tickets on local lines for twenty-five 
cents, and also, in addition, would light all business streets 
with electricity and keep the tracks sprinkled (there was no 
paving then). Or in lieu of lighting the streets, would pay 
$1,000 per month for this franchise. This offer was refused, 
and the Council granted the Terminal's request for an in- 
crease in fare ! It was a poor business transaction. 

Captain Cross conducted his road for a year, giving gen- 
erally good service, then sold it to a syndicate of St. Louis 
capitalists headed by R. C. Kerens of St. Louis ; E. F. Leonard 
of Springfield, 111., and T. Leighton, also of St. Louis, were 
associated with Kerens. Kerens was a noted figure in politics 
in his home state, at one time becoming a prominent candidate 
for U. S. Senator, and was also Minister to Russia. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 339 

This purchase was made in July, 1891, the title of the 
syndicate being "The California Investment Co." When the 
lease on the Altadena Road expired, that road was absorbed 
in the purchase. The Terminal railway continued in business 
under that name until purchased, in 1900, by Senator W. A. 
Clarke, of Montana, who changed its name to the ' ' San Pedro, 
Los Angeles & Salt Lake R. R.," and extended the line to 
Salt Lake City. Subsequently, the Southern Pacific, proving 
a too powerful competitor, Senator Clarke found it convenient 
to sell half interest in his road to that corporation. In 1917 
the name of the road was shortened to the "Los Angeles & 
Salt Lake R. R." 

The Southern Pacific Enters 

The Santa Fe, with its local offices seeking business, and 
its main line passing through the city's gates, became the 
popular transcontinental tourist line of travel. Hence the 
desire of the Southern Pacific to compete for some of this 
profitable business. Under an agreement, the Santa Fe had 
not been permitted to complete the connection of its trunk line 
from Barstow to the coast, moving its trains under lease from 
that junction over the Southern Pacific line to Mojave, thence 
into Los Angeles. When at the termination of this agreement, 
the intervening gap was completed, and the rails, laid via the 
Cajon Pass, connecting with its local line through the San 
Gabriel Valley, the Southern Pacific was compelled to meet 
this rival everywhere in its own territory. The last con- 
necting rail was laid on the Santa Fe at Mud Springs (San 
Dimas) in 1886, tapping the heart of the citrus fruit industry, 
and giving a desirable route for the Eastern tourist, so many 
thousands of whom came into Pasadena. 

In 1894 the Southern Pacific did apply for a franchise to 
enter Pasadena from Ipswich Street, near Raymond Hill, 
thence into the city. The franchise was granted by the 
board of trustees, January 29th, 1895, upon condition that 
the road be completed within one year from date, and that a 
depot building, costing not less than $5,000, be built at its 
terminus on Colorado Street. Through the agency of J. S. 
Torrance the Colorado Street frontage was purchased. The 
company also purchased a strip of land from the rear of the 
entire tier of Marengo Avenue lots abutting on Broadway in 
order to widen Broadway sufficiently for trackage. The fear 



340 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

that efforts would later be made to cross Colorado Street 
prevailed, and considerable opposition was made to giving 
the company a franchise to enter the city at all, bnt the oppo- 
sition was not maintained and the company carried out its 
part of the pact, thus giving Pasadena the third transcon- 
tinental railroad. The great tourist business of this city has 
justified the efforts of the railroads, as the annual thousands 
of tourists and settlers attest. Rivalry for this business has 
become keen and results in most excellent service; indeed, a 
trip overland is both expeditious and attractive and many 
luxuries are offered to persuade the traveler to attempt it 
often. 

House Caks, Mule Cars, " Dummies " and Trolleys 
the luxuries of travel multiply and expanding conveniences 

COME APACE. 

The need of better intercommunication with Los Angeles, 
and more convenient ways of reaching the expanding limits 
of Pasadena, was being discovered by 1885. The archives 
show that no less than thirty-eight applications have been 
made to the city for franchises for railway lines within its 
limits. Some of these franchises, it is true, were merely for 
the purpose of connecting old lines, or for making communi- 
cation between different detached points. Some of these 
never materialized beyond the City Clerk's office. But some 
of them have been built and survived, only to eventually be- 
come part of the great Pacific Electric system, now monopo- 
lizing the entire local passenger traffic, excepting that af- 
forded by jitneys. A journey via the Arroyo Eoad or the 
"Adobe" Road, with the family equine as the motive power 
before 1885 meant almost a day's time, from start to finish. 
Pasadena was then reaching into the country, and needed 
better facilities. Stephen Townsend was the first man with 
"nerve" to undertake a street car system for local uses. In 
October, 1885, he applied for a franchise to operate a "horse 
or mule car line" over the following streets. Beginning on 
Fair Oaks Avenue near Raymond Hill, up Fair Oaks to 
Walnut Street; with as yet an undetermined extension 
farther. But it seemed to many as premature, and Townsend 
received little financial or other material encouragement, for 
at the end of three months, wherein it was required that the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



341 




First Street Car into Pasadena, Sept. 30, 1886 



road must be begun, 
nothing had materi- 
alized, and the fran- 
chise automatically ex- 
pired. 

But the idea was 
only languishing, not 
deceased, and to revive 
it, a meeting was 
called February 15th, 
1886, at which C. C. 
Brown was Chairman 
and numerous inter- 
ested citizens were present. Townsend narrated his endeavors 
and failure to induce financial and other interest, and agreed 
to contribute his own money and efforts. The plan being dis- 
cussed, it was decided to effect an organization, and that a 
corporation be formed with a capital of $50,000 ; 500 shares at 
$100 each, to be offered to subscribers. Also, it was decided, 
that the proposed line be extended as far as Chestnut Street, 
thence via Summit to Illinois Street. At this meeting $22,000 
was subscribed — or promised — and the following Directors 
were named: S. Townsend; Wiliel Thomson; F. M. Ward; R. 
Williams; P. M. Green and P. G. Wooster. Ten thousand dol- 
lars of the promised funds materialized at once, and the active 
construction work was shortly begun, and carried forward. 

It was September 30th, 1886, that the first street car line 
was opened for business in Pasadena. That day was momen- 
tous, and was celebrated with noise and jubilation. At high 
noon the first car came rolling down Fair Oaks Avenue — it 
was labeled " Pasadena and Raymond" in prominent letters, 
then back again to the corner of Colorado Street — just an 
exhibition hike, as it were. The car was loaded inside and 
out with guests invited by the management. A photograph 
taken of that car shows an enthusiastic overload. Prominent 
upon its roof — for the roof was crowded also — stands, in the 
photograph, a man smiling widely and waving an American 
flag. That was G. Roscoe Thomas in action. Other well 
known citizens surround him, and upon the streets there is a 
crowd of enthusiastic people acclaiming the advent of the first 
street car. The invited guests were entertained in the 
Webster Hotel with luncheon, where many speeches of con- 



342 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

gratulation were made. Alas for the expectations of the 
projectors! The horse and mule feed — the motive energy of 
that time — cost more than the financial return; the mules 
languished in the tracks. The "force" — one driver-conductor 
combination — rang the bell loudly and ostentatiously all 
along the way, and offered to stop his car anywhere and be 
ever so accommodating. But it was no use. There was not 
enough population interested in the "boss" cars, and walking 
seemed to be pretty good, anyhow. The entire receipts for the 
first year's operations were only $2,470. Notwithstanding 
these meager returns, the stockholders decided to continue 
"cutting down expenses" to the minimum! They did con- 
tinue operating in a reluctant, intermittent way until 1894, 
when the equipment, franchise, and mule, were sold to the 
Pasadena and Los Angeles Electric system — now the Pacific 
Electric. Fourteen thousand dollars was the stipend paid — 
the losses were charged to that great and voracious mogul, 
Experience. 

The Painter Line 

The next ambitious railroad builder was Alonzo Painter 
who, October 4th, 1886, was granted a franchise "to lay a 
single line of iron street railroad track and run cars thereon, 
moved by horses or mules, or wire ropes under the pas- 
sengers," etc. Thus reads the franchise. No wires were 
ever "run under the passengers" in the meaning of this 
legal phraseology, but Painter did build and operate a road 
— from Colorado Street, north on Raymond Avenue (Ray- 
mond Avenue was in part opened to give this accommodation) 
thence on Chestnut Street to Fair Oaks Avenue, and on Fair 
Oaks Avenue north to the city limits. An additional fran- 
chise was granted January 12th, 1888, permitting the use of 
electricity (then becoming known as a motive power for rail- 
roads) "from storage batteries," this being then thought the 
coming method, by some engineers. But storage batteries 
were never tried on the Painter line. Mule power was the 
main reliance, for a time at least. When Painter received 
his franchise, a corporation Avas formed with A. J. Painter, 
J. H. Painter, Delos Arnold, George D. Patten, C. W. 
Buchanan and W. J. Holland, as its first Board of Directors. 

Work was begun at once, and February, 1887, the rails 
were laid as far north as Washington Street, and soon there- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 343 

after to the Mountain View Cemetery. Later on continued 
to a point near the Devil's Gate, in the Arroyo Seco. On 
this last part of the road, a " dummy" engine, of Painter's 
invention, was used, and Painter was often seen running this 
engine and experimenting with it to demonstrate the effi- 
ciency of gasoline as a motive power. He was successful in 
this, and it is claimed by his friends that he was, in fact, the 
discoverer of the alleged "Selden patent," having pre-dated 
Selden in the application of gasoline in this way. But 
Painter never knew how nearly he missed becoming a mil- 
lionaire inventor by thus making the automobile a success. 
It was while making these experimental runs that he one day 
invited his friend MacD. Snowball, to accompany him on one 
of these trips to the Arroyo. Pleased to go was friend Snow- 
ball. Everything went fine for a time, but presently some- 
thing went wrong with the machinery, and the engine started, 
unchecked, toward the Devil's Gate. Painter got pretty busy, 
and Snowball clung to the rocking engine, softly praying. 
While Painter was tinkering with things, bending over the 
i 'works," there came a bang! The engine blew up, landing 
Snowball on a grassy bank, and Painter in a tree, with hair 
and eyebrows singed and face blackened like a chimney 
sweep ! Picking himself up, and examining himself care- 
fully, to ascertain damages, Snowball was glad to discover 
nothing more serious than torn trousers. He assisted his 
fellow voyager out of the tree, asking him, casually, "if he 
was hurt?" It was the only time in his life that Painter 
forgot his early, Quaker, training — and swore! (he denied 
this afterwards) but a gasoline explosion with such results 
might be considered good excuse for such forgetfulness of 
early precepts, and Painter stands absolved. The Painter 
line was only another example of over-confidence, and was 
not more successful, financially, than its predecessor. It, too, 
was taken over by the Pacific Electric and finally drove its 
last car into the barn, sold its mules, and went out of business 
as the "Painter Railroad." 

The Highland Railkoad 

a railroad experiment that failed 

The next venture in railroading came when G. A. Swart- 
wout, then a banker, on December 31st, 1886, obtained a fran- 



344 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

chise to build a line "operated by horses or mules" or "wire 
ropes," from the corner of Colorado Street and Eaymond 
Avenue, thence on Colorado Street to Euclid Avenue, thence 
out Walnut Street to Los Eobles Avenue, thence north on Los 
Eobles to Villa, out Villa to Lake and north on that avenue to 
"The Highlands" — a large subdivision lying upon the north- 
east slope, which Swartwout was promoting. It was also 
Swartwout's design to continue his road to the foot of the 
Sierra Maclre Mountains, with the ultimate probability of 
connecting with a mountain climbing railway, a scheme which 
was actually carried out some years later by Professor Lowe. 
But Swartwout built his road only as far as the Highlands, 
eventually extending it down Broadway to the Baymond Sta- 
tion of the Santa Fe ; from thence across to Baymond Avenue 
and up that street to Colorado Street, where the road began, 
making a loop of the last part of it. This road was operated 
in a desultory way, at a loss, financially, and together with 
the Jand operations, occasioned Swartwout's retirement from 
the field of speculation in Pasadena. C. C. Thompson, having 
a large body of land on Lake Avenue, was Vice-President of 
the road for a time, but it is only a reminiscence of unhappy 
venture to him now. This road also was sold to the Pacific 
Electric in 1894 and is now a part of that system, some addi- 
tions and extensions having been made to it. 

The Coloeado Stkeet B. B. 

MORE RAILROAD " MAGNATES" 

Bailway systems were "in the air," and common topics. 
Non-success did not seem to deter other efforts. Therefore, 
it was not unexpected news w r hen it was learned that on 
October 15th, 1885, just after the first (Townsend) road had 
been given the right to build, that Messrs. H. W. Magee and 
George E. Meharry for themselves and others, had been 
given a franchise by the Supervisors to build a line out Colo- 
rado Street — from Fair Oaks Avenue to Hill Street — then a 
mile beyond the limits of the Colony. The Directors of this 
enterprise were George E. Meharry, T. P. Lukens, H. F. 
Goodwin, C. C. Brown, S. 0. McGrew, Samuel Stratton and 
S. P. McLean. Magee was Attorney for the company. 
Meharry was selected as its President, Stratton as Treasurer, 
and Lukens as Secretary. Behold seven perfectly level 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 345 

headed citizens — who knew nothing, practically, about rail- 
roads other than riding in the upholstered seats — going into 
such an enterprise as this ! But that was the way then, and 
the sort of spirit that animated the builders of Pasadena — 
they feared no risks, and faced them nonchalantly. 

At all events, they were not disturbed by the probabilities 
of the future, and went ahead, built the road, and at its 
opening celebrated it. An invitation was extended by the 
founder of Olivewood, who was the son of a bishop, with a 
brain of a general — C. T. Hopkins — who had 150 citizens as 
his guests on that auspicious day to celebrate the new under- 
taking at his Olivewood home. He gave them a fine lunch 
under the olive and orange trees. Speeches were made by 
Hopkins, 0. S. Picher, H. W. Magee, and, of course, C. C. 
Brown, who had been appointed Superintendent of the new 
road. 

The old-fashioned mule and horse was the motive power, 
and soon they were merrily engaged in the task of hauling 
the little dinky cars on the bright new rails. Colorado Street 
was, as now, the main artery of trade, and with the outlying 
districts should have made much traffic for the little cars. It 
was doing very well indeed, until the fatal boom burst; this 
unhappy event being death to so many enterprises, as will be 
found stated in numerous places in this veracious history. 

The Colorado Street line found in this downfall, the usual 
disaster of departed nickels — no, I believe it was six cents — 
that was charged, or "six fares for two bits." With every 
other business affair, the railroad business flagged and 
retrenchment became, of necessity, the order of the day. I 
am not aware that the directors themselves drove any of the 
mules, though the Superintendent oft substituted for the 
absent regular driver, who acted also, as conductor and con- 
versationalist extraordinary. The trip out Colorado Street 
was a "personally conducted" one, in which it was expected 
the "Conductor" would make himself guide, counsellor and 
friend, to chance strangers; and even messenger to the fair 
patrons who lived along the line ! If, for instance, Mrs. Smith 
hailed the driver, as he drove the melancholy mule by her 
abode, and requested him to fetch a "few pounds of sugar," 
or "a package of butter" from the grocery, it was up to him 
to be accommodating. He must know the latest price of eggs, 
too. Then, if a lady passenger requested him to "wait a 



346 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

minute" while she ran into the post office, or bought a slice 
of ham, far be it from the polite and gentlemanly conductor 
to refrain; and not infrequently the car would stop "a 
minute" while the beseeching lady would perform her brief 
errand and return, smiling! Then "all aboard" would 
awaken the somnolent mule and off it merrily pounded down 
Colorado Street, the car bobbing up and down as it passed 
over the undulating rails, and the conductor cheerfully 
whistling. Oh, those were the halcyon days ! That was the 
"accommodation" line for a fact, for it tried to "accommo- 
date" everybody who rode on it, or who did not — except the 
man in a hurry! It was hoped that a "country extension" of 
this line might induce settlement and reciprocal business, so 
it was extended down Hill, to San Pasqual Street. Then the 
little car with the lonesome mule would, now and then, jog 
down the extension — there to tarry for the possible passenger 
or two from the country roundabouts. On warm summer 
days, the mule was turned loose for the hour interval between 
trips, to browse upon the adjacent greensward, while the 
driver took a nap! Not yet satisfied, these nervy railroad 
builders next built a branch down Los Robles Avenue to 
California Street, and out California to Wilson Avenue ; also 
another up Lake Avenue to Illinois Street. 

But the railroad business was not what it had been cracked 
up to be to these enthusiasts who built it, and a gentleman 
from Maine — George F. Foster — became practically sole 
owner of the whole system in 1890. Notwithstanding his 
energetic labors and the expenditure of some money, he was 
glad to "pass the buck" to the Pacific Electric in 1894 — 
joining company with the rest of "experiments" and being 
quite willing to surrender his opportunities of being a "mag- 
nate. ' ' 

The West Pasadena E-. R. 

PARK PLACE AND LINDA VISTA LINE 

In 1896, speculators, noting the scenic beauties of Linda 
Vista and the land west of the Arroyo Seco, became attracted 
thereto, and purchased several tracts of land for subdivision 
in that section. Prominent amongst these were Prof. J. D. 
Yocum and "Nate" Yocum; I. N. Mundell; H. W. Ogden (a 
Congressman from Louisiana); "Tom" Flynn, and others. 
But to make this land available, railway communication was 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 347 

essential; thus was projected the railway whose name captions 
this article. A bridge was built across the Arroyo (it has 
been replaced with a better one) and the road built west on 
Colorado Street, up Vernon to Kensington Place, through 
Millard Place to Walnut Street, to north Orange Grove 
Avenue, thence around Park Place. Park Place was another 
desirable tract between North Orange Grove Avenue and 
the Arroyo bank adjoining the Orange Grove reservoir. A 
hotel, the Park, was built where the Nash mansion stands. 
The little narrow gauge track wound around this subdivision 
as if desirous of passing every lot, as indeed it was almost 
intended to do, and then ran down the hill, across the bridge 
and out to Linda Vista. But the subdivision failed in attract- 
ing many buyers and, eventually, the mule was withdrawn 
from its struggles and the rails sold to Professor Lowe for 
his mountain road, in 1890. Some clay this section will have a 
trolley line which will extend out through the Canyada and to 
the beautiful country beyond. 

The Pacific Electeic 

THE PASADENA & LOS ANGELES ELECTRIC 

This " octopus" of the trolley system, as it has been 
irreverently called, reaches out its tentacles for business from 
Los Angeles, and feeds upon the travelling centers of this 
and the three adjacent counties. From the ocean on the west 
to Redlands, Riverside, San Bernardino and intervening- 
places on the east, it has intrenched itself, and it has built 
one of the finest trolley systems in the world. I am writing 
no brief for the P. E. when I assert that no better roadbeds, 
no better cars, and no better service is given anywhere, under 
similar conditions. Pasadena has long clamored for quicker 
service and may yet have it, but to get it, it must be by a road 
passing through an unsettled territory, to eliminate danger 
to life, while permitting rapidity of transit. The tremendous 
travel — several million fares yearly — between Los Angeles 
and this city, denotes this necessity, and means that " rapid 
transit" — such as has been demanded — unless by an elevated 
system, or through a subway, is a practical impossibility if 
the element of constant danger must be eliminated to a degree 
commensurate with public safety. 

The first electric trolley system of Pasadena had its incep- 
tion, when, in April, 1894, was incorporated the " Pasadena & 



348 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Los Angeles Electric R. R. " The directors and prime movers 
of this enterprise were E. C. Webster; P. M. Green; L. P. 
Hansen; A. W. Roche of Pasadena; and E. P. Clarke and Wm. 
Lacey of Los Angeles. Its capital stock was $500,000. E. P. 
Clarke was the genins behind this enterprise. The first piece 
of strategy was to purchase all of the local line, as has 
been recited in separate detail, thus forming a web that 
embraced the coming passenger traffic of the city of Pasa- 
dena, and which now forms the feeding system to the trunk 
line. For local purposes, E. C. Webster was made president; 
L. P. Hansen, vice-president, and Clarke, general manager. 
The line to Los Angeles was built and in time the whole 
system was reorganized and electrified into a modern trolley 
system and into a condition of high efficiency. But this was 
accomplished by new and experienced hands. 

The first electric car into Pasadena came up Fair Oaks 
Avenue February 19th, 1895, although the road was not yet 
completed, from Garvanza to Columbia Street a transfer by 
bus being necessary to complete the trip. 

The "P. E.," owner of all the trolley lines in Pasadena, 
began its career when in 1902 Henry E. Huntington came 
down from San Francisco with a large increment of treasure 
and purchased the various street railway systems in Los 
Angeles and consolidated them all (excepting the present L. 
A. Railway), calling the new company the " Pacific Electric." 
The L. A. & Pasadena Electric Railway had become involved 
financially and upon the request of the bondholders — (large 
holders were G. G. Green, Andrew McNally, E. P. Dewey, 
M. H. Sherman, J. W. Hugus and F. C. Bolt). These bond- 
holders engaged the services of Charles Warren Smith — who 
had earned a reputation in railroad circles by the rehabilita- 
tion of the Santa Fe system in Southern California, also the 
L. A. Railway — and gave him charge of the road, making him, 
in effect, the receiver for the lines. Mr. Smith's son W. H. 
Smith, was secretary to the reorganization body. This road 
was consolidated with the Los Angeles systems aforesaid, 
and under Mr. Smith's able management, the new corporation 
was brought into good business shape and he left it in this 
happy condition when he relinquished it to the general man- 
agement of his son, W. H., in 1902. The Mt. Lowe system 
had also been purchased from Valentine Peyton at the same 
time, and included in the combination. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 349 

It was the energy and foresight of H. E. Huntington who 
planned with such perspicacity the great interurban system 
that now comprehends three great counties, and whose genius 
made him a notable figure in Southern California. 

The California Cycleway Co. 

This was the promise of a road, elevated and on grade, 
as circumstance required, between Pasadena and Los Angeles 
for the use of "bicycles or other horseless vehicles,' ' as the 
franchise stated. It was organized by Horace M. Dobbins, in 
1897, who secured rights of way for about six miles of the 
required distance and made a beginning, building an elevated 
way, finishing it as far south as the Raymond Hotel. It was 
a stock company, and because of lack of support, and the 
bicycle enthusiasm declining, the project was abandoned. 
When the city purchased the land for Central Park, this 
elevated road traversed it. Dobbins exchanged his right of 
way for other rights as far as Glendale Street, with the city. 
Then, in 1909, this corporation was transformed into the 
Pasadena Eapid Transit Company, proposing to build a 
narrow gauge rapid transit railway to Los Angeles. W. R. 
Stevenson was the engineer of this enterprise and much detail 
work was completed. But the required financial aid was not 
forthcoming for this project and it was halted until, when in 
February, 1917, the City of Pasadena, conforming to a pop- 
ular demand for a municipal railway, paid $5,000 for an 
option to purchase all the rights of way, etc., of the Dobbins 
corporation, for the sum of $156,425. At this writing, 
appraisers are at work securing data on a complete right 
of way into Los Angeles, with the object of submitting the 
proposition to the voters and asking their approval of a bond 
issue for building and equipping such a road. 

A Railroad to the Sky 

THE MT. LOWE RAILWAY. 

A ladder to the clouds ! A railway to the sky ! 

This is in effect, what the incline, and its continuation far 
up steep mountain sides, means. It is Pasadena's pet spec- 
tacular scenic achievement, made possible by the engineering 
genius of a quiet man, fathered by the enthusiasm and daring 
of an inventor, whose patents had ranged from gas stoves to 



350 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

war balloons. A railroad that would climb into the canyons 
and seek the peaks of the Sierra Madres had been discussed 
for years. As early as 1884, or 1885, Clarence S. Martin, an 
enterprising boomer, had considered it and even escorted, as 
his guest, an eastern engineer named Horn up the Mt. Wilson 
trail, and obtained from him some data bearing upon moun- 
tain railways and their practical possibilities. That engineer 
believed a road to the top of Mt. Wilson feasible, and rec- 
ommended that it commence in Eaton Canyon and be con- 
structed in the manner of the Pike's Peak road — a cog system. 
But the cost seemed, at the time, too formidable to make the 
undertaking easily financed, or profitable to its builders, 
hence no active steps were taken to promote it by Martin, or 
his friends who had been impressed by his idea. 

Then came D. J. McPherson, an engineer of experience. 
McPherson began the contemplation of these peaks and of a 
means of attaining them, and made several trips to the sum- 
mits in the determination of a plan. He essayed several 
possible routes in this quest, and, being of Scotch lineage, he 
just " hated to give up" a problem, until it was satisfactorily 
solved. 

McPherson 's plan was to build to the top of Mt. Wilson; 
as he considered that the most feasible, and the finest from a 
scenic point of view. In pursuance of this idea he laid his 
scheme before P. M. Green, president of the First National 
Bank, and J. W. Vandevort, who was interested in the Mt. 
Wilson trail, and an owner of property there. Neither of 
these men were much impressed or disposed to give financial 
backing to the scheme; and McPherson was recommended to 
see one Professor T. S. C. Lowe, who had achieved some 
reputation as an inventor and balloonist during the Civil 
War, and who was a recent arrival in Southern California. 
Owners of Brady's Civil War pictures may see, in one of 
these, a photograph of Professor Lowe's balloon which was 
used at the battle of Fair Oaks, Va. That balloon did signal 
service in the battle of Fair Oaks in reconnoitering above the 
field of battle. Communications with the field were main- 
tained by telegraph. Thus recites history. 

Professor Lowe was fired by McPherson 's scheme and 
agreed to finance it. But difficulties met him in the start. The 
owners of the trail to Mt. Wilson would not agree to his 
requirements. This is why that summit was not the terminus 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 351 

of the Mt. Lowe railway. Failing to come to terms, as stated, 
Lowe and McPherson began looking for another route, and 
in pursuance of the object McPherson set out in January, 
1890, accompanied by some chain men, to discover another 
route that would be desirable scenically, and be practical 
from an engineering point of view. The result of many diffi- 
cult trips was the choice of the route adopted, and over which 
the road was built. 

It was at first believed that a cog wheel system must be 
used to negotiate safely the steep ascent, but McPherson 
devised the cable incline, supplemented by the electric trolley 
now in existence, and began work upon the problem at once. 
Upon the completion of the engineer's plans work was begun 
April 12th, 1892, at the foot of Echo Mountain in Eubio 
Canyon. At the same time, preparations were made to con- 
tinue the trolley line up Lake Avenue and into Rubio Canyon, 
which was necessary to carry supplies for the project. Many 
engineering difficulties had to be overcome in doing this, but 
all were surmounted and that part of the work completed in 
quick time. Work upon the cable was rushed and it, too, was 
completed and made its first revolution about the ponderous 
wheels supporting it, June 21st, 1893. These great cables, 
for they are duplex, form a continuous unit composed of steel 
strands interwoven and each has a length of 5,000 feet. The 
length of the incline from the beginning in Rubio Canyon to 
its final landing on Echo Mountain is 2600 feet (or just half 
a mile) and the grade from 48% to 63%, the variation being 
due to a "drop" in the last section, owing to change in per- 
pendicularity of the peak. This cable is carried over a steel 
cylinder at each end of the incline, supported by grooved 
wheels, set at intervals, and is said to have been the first of its 
kind in the world. Each of the cables conveys a car resting 
upon steel rails, one car descending while the other ascends, 
thus counterbalancing. Safety attachments prevent accident, 
if by any chance the cable should break, but during the twenty- 
four years of its operation this has not occurred, nor has 
there been any serious accident upon the entire road. 

The first ascent by this cable for passenger service 
occurred July 4th, 1893, with fitting services at the completion 
of this part of the great project. 

At Echo Mountain — named because of the fine repetition 
of echoes that are heard in the canyon — a hotel was built for 



352 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

guests; a post office, telephone, and express service also 
installed. For a time, a little paper called the Mt. Lowe 
Echo, was published to advertise the wondrous place to the 
world outside. The great 3,000,000 candlepower searchlight 
that had been on exhibition at the Chicago World's Fair, was 
purchased by Prof. Lowe and installed at Echo Mountain. 
When this light is flashed, the mariner at sea, or the resident 
at Catalina Island — 60 miles distant — may find himself won- 
dering the wherefore of that brilliant pillar of light that sud- 
denly smites him, and the birds and animals hidden in 
secluded mountain nooks are startled and alarmed by its 
blinding rays. 

In 1894, an astronomical observatory was built, and placed 
in charge of Prof. Lewis Swift. A fine 6-inch telescope was 
one of its instruments and through it some planetary dis- 
coveries were made by Prof. Swift and by Prof. Larkin, his 
successor. The elevation of Echo Mountain is 3500 feet 
above sea level and 2650 feet above Colorado Street, Pasa- 
dena. 

The completion of the cable was but the beginning of more 
difficult problems. To reach the summit of the highest peak 
was the final aim; work was begun on this part of the plan, 
and within a year it was completed to Alpine Tavern — its 
final stop within a few hundred yards of the actual summit. 
This line is on electric trolley system, one of the most spec- 
tacular of its kind, and producing many thrills in the 
passenger as it climbs its careful journey to the summit. 
Great care is exercised to reassure the timid, and no accident 
has ever marred the interest of this journey. Sometimes the 
car seems to be actually suspended above canyons thousands 
of feet in depth, and as it creeps around dizzy looking moun- 
tain sides the magnificent prospect makes the traveler forget 
his fears. Alpine Tavern, the end of the line, is reached and a 
tempting menu is set for the hungry. This hotel is located 
in a picturesque glen a few hundred feet below the actual 
summit of Mt. Lowe. 

The rise from Echo Mountain has been 3000 feet and the 
grade nowhere exceeds 8%. The height of Mt. Lowe is 6723 
feet above sea level. From its summit one may, indeed, have 
the world at his feet, for the beautiful San Gabriel Valley 
with its clustering towns, cities and villages lays before him 
like a splendid canvas, while farther westward is seen the 
Pacific with Catalina in its misty robes. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 353 

Mt. Lowe, as it is now called, was originally known as 
Oak Mountain, but in honor of the builder of the steel trail 
to its peak, was rechristened September 24th, 1892, by a party 
of the Professor's admirers, who had accompanied him to 
its summit. Unhappily, from this enterprise Professor Lowe 
did not benefit financially. In fact, it was the beginning of 
financial difficulties, for he exhausted his entire resources in 
the undertaking, and lost the property afterwards. The road 
was sold under bankruptcy proceedings in 1900 to Valentine 
Peyton for $175,000, probably half its cost ; but it will remain 
a lasting monument to his perspicacity, and to D. J. McPher- 
son's genius and skill. 

Creighton, the new owner of the road, was a successful 
business man and capitalist, but did not undertake the 
management of his new enterprise, instead he engaged J. 
Sidney Torrance, a Pasadenan, to manage his business for 
him. Thus it was conducted, its financial entanglements being 
straightened out, for several years, when it passed into the 
hands of the Pacific Electric system. It is a popular trip, 
summer and winter, in summer because of its attractiveness 
as a mountain resting place and for its picturesque beauties ; 
in winter because, when heavy rainstorms bring to that alti- 
tude snowfalls until the summits are clothed in white, the 
Easterner, far from his familiar winter scenes, delights to find 
here the usual home surroundings. "From Oranges to the 
Snow" is a miraculous transformation; and many thousands 
enjoy the pleasures of snow by a ride of an hour or two from 
their sunny homes in the valley below. 



23 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
The Watek Question 




THE STORY OF WATER IN PASADENA IN ITS VARIOUS PHASES AND ITS FINAL 
ACQUIREMENT BY THE CITY. 

T has been well said that the wise man first buys 
the water and then the land when he contemplates 
establishing his lares and penates — or in plain 
words, begins home building, in California. This 
is, indeed, a necessary truth in any of those 
Western states, where nature in providing its rainfall is a 
patron of somewhat uncertain temper. The habits of Jupiter 
Pluvius, that mythical being upon whom so much depends, 
are at times coy and erratic, therefore it behooves the pioneer 
to be prepared for a full acquaintance with his customs. The 
rainless summer demands careful advance preparation for 
our household needs, and for crops, especially the tremendous 
citrus product of Southern California. So, therefore, when 
the land is attainable, the mountain arroyos must usually be 
looked to for streams that live through the long and prac- 
tically rainless summer. Sometimes artesian wells are at 




THE DEVIL'S GATE. Original source of water supply 

354 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 355 

hand — a rare occurrence along the mountain base, or on the 
mesa lands. 

Land worth from $100 per acre down to almost nothing, 
as "dry" lands, are worth up to $500 or even more, with a 
plentiful water supply for fruit growing or gardening pur- 
poses. Water is valued at from $1,000 to $2,000 per miner's 
inch. It will be seen how important it was for the first 
settlers in Pasadena to find land with an ample and perpetual 
water supply as its ally. It was an essential these men did 
not overlook; and so we have the Arroyo Seco, Millard's 
Canyon, Los Flores Canyon and others of minor importance, 
sending forth streams of splendidly pure water that has been 
so important in the development of this community. As has 
been noted heretofore when the San Gabriel Orange Grove 
Association purchased from Dr. Griffin the original 4,000 
acres that became the Colony lands, it included approximately 
three-tenths of all of the waters of the Arroyo Seco. 

The law of riparian rights vouchsafed the purchasers of 
these lands and their appurtenant waters their rights thereto 
forever. Not only the waters in sight, but those underground. 
The term "Arroyo Seco" means "dry river," and, as its 
name indicates, may have little or no water in sight in mid- 
summer, but beneath its then dry surface may percolate a 
current important and valuable. The waters that flow down 
the Arroyo and form the supply upon which Pasadena relies, 
rise in distant canyons or more distant summits — perhaps 
hundreds of miles away. Winter rains and snows store these 
waters in subterranean depths, to find their outlet in summer 
as sparkling rills and pellucid springs, which are taken up 
and piped for our convenience. 

With the Colony formation a Board of Directors was 
named, which not only managed the affairs pertaining to the 
land, but also its water system. The first President was B. 
S. Eaton; Vice-President, Thos. F. Croft, and Secretary, 
D. M. Berry. Eaton having had experience as an engineer, 
was given charge of the water and was employed to build 
flumes, lay pipes and build a reservoir. Colonel Jabez Ban- 
bury was given direction over the distribution of the water 
to consumers, and was therefore Pasadena's first Zanjero, 

The first capital stock of the San Gabriel Orange Grove 
Association was $25,000, divided into 100 shares, but this 
capitalization was later increased to $50,000 and the number 



356 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

of shares doubled. This increase was to pay for the cost of 
water development, reservoirs, pipes, etc. The Colony lands 
had been platted and surveyed by N. B. Gibson, an engineer, 
with the supervisory services of Calvin Fletcher, one of the 
Colonists, who gave his services gratuitously; but the water 
distribution was planned by Eaton. Incidentally, it may be 
said that P. M. Green, W. T. Clapp and A. 0. Bristol, assisted 
in surveying the lands of the association. A site for the 
reservoir had been selected, the very spot where on that 
eventful 27th of January the pioneers had met to select their 
holdings and initiate home building. The reservoir is there 
yet — improved with cemented walls, and a cover to protect 
it from the sun's rays. The Devil's Gate, the real gateway 
through which must come the accumulated waters of the 
Arroyo, is, as its name indicates, a natural gateway between 
the rocky banks of the Arroyo — here narrow and deep — a 
gorge through which, after torrential rains in winter, rush 
the turbulent stream in a mad and noisy struggle, but in 
summer may be but a mere dry way with a tiny thread of 
water escaping from its catchway above. Surveys were made 
under Eaton's guidance, and a bulkhead built to catch the 
stream. From here a thirteen inch steel pipe was laid for a 
few hundred yards to a sandbox below the Devil's Gate, the 
sandbox being, in effect, a filter to screen out the floating 
refuse of the stream before it entered the distributing pipes. 
From the sandbox a mile of eleven inch pipe was laid, and 
thence continued in a seven inch pipe to the reservoir, a total 
distance of about three miles, with a fall of 60 feet. From 
the reservoir the water entered into eleven and seven inch 
steel pipes which extended down Orange Grove Avenue to the 
lower end of the Colony lands. From this main lateral pipes 
conveyed the water upon the settlers' lands. Before this 
system was completed, the pioneer must needs convey the 
water he used from the Arroyo in barrels or buckets, as 
needed for household uses. No small task, as the Arroyo was 
from half to a mile distant from the settled lands. The 
reservoir was of 3,000,000 gallons capacity, and at first had 
no lining, but in 1875 a contract was given I. N. Mundell to 
"Pave the sides of one half of it (it was divided in two 
sections) with boulders" and bottom with gravel, "well 
tamped," these being the first steps for a purer water. 

Increasing demands for water, due to the settlement of the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 357 

Lake Vineyard Colony's lands brought about a controversy 
regarding the rights of the colonies in certain springs of the 
Arroyo, above the Devil's Gate. When the Orange Grove 
Association made its purchase, it was supposed that one half 
of all the waters of "Tibbets" springs was included therein, 
and until 1879 the waters were divided pro rata upon this 
basis, with the Lake Vineyard Colony, without question. 
The contentions that followed were finally adjusted and devel- 
opments made by mutual agreement. 

In 1886 J. D. Schuyler, Assistant State Engineer, was 
employed to measure the water flow in the various springs 
above the Devil's Gate and reported as follows — March 18th, 
1886: 

Total flow from Tibbets Springs 56.6 miners ' inches 

" " " Ivy " j 10.9 " " 

" " " Flutterwheel " 26.5 



Total 94.00 



a a 



Flowing into west side pipes, 34 inches, or approximately 
one-third. 

The then rather crude method of separation of the waters 
did not add to the amiability of the situation, and in 1888 the 
two companies determined to settle this contention for once 
and all. To this end H. W. Magee and Judge 0. S. Picher 
were appointed a committee to ascertain the relative propor- 
tion of waters due each company, and to fix upon a plan of 
division. Their report determined that the West Side com- 
pany was entitled to three-tenths, and the Lake Vineyard 
company to seven-tenths of all of the waters running through 
the Devil's Gate or in springs rising above it. In accordance 
with this report, Col. J. E. Place, engineer, devised a method 
of dividing the waters which was put into operation November 
9th, 1888. This included in its plan bringing these waters 
into reservoir No. 1 of the Lake Vineyard Company and 
separating them there into their proper delivery pipes. 

Then the remaining ownership in the Lake Vineyard 
Colony lands yet owned by Wilson and Shorb were purchased 
by a syndicate. This purchase included 200 shares of water, 
and $75,000 was the price paid. The water rights thus 
obtained were afterwards sold to owners of "dry lands," and 
gave the purchasers the right to convey water to said lands. 



358 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

This practice was afterward stopped as prejudicial to the 
Colony's interests, and the distribution of their water 
restricted to the Colony (now City) limits. 

Further development of the water supply was prosecuted 
— the West Side company especially making developments 
upon their own property. Thus came the developing of the 
so-called " Sheep Corral Spring" — located near an abandoned 
sheep corral (just beside Brookside Park). Long before the 
Indiana Colony had settled here the previous locators on the 
land had been accustomed to corral their sheep at this place, 
there to shear or dip them. Part of the waters of this spring 
were pumped into the reservoir 160 feet above, and part con- 
veyed through pipes to a reservoir on the South Pasadena 
lands, from whence it was distributed over about 500 acres of 
that section. In addition to this supply, another spring called 
the "Adobe spring" furnished water to the lands called the 
"Live Oak Park Tract" which had been sold to some spec- 
ulators for subdivision into home sites. The information 
above given refers only to the San Gabriel Orange Grove 
Association's lands and their water supply. In the earliest 
years this supply was deemed sufficient for all anticipated 
purposes. By regulation domestic water was given to each 
land purchaser as a part of his purchase. In fact, he became 
actual co-owner of water in proportion to his acreage. Water 
for irrigation was allowed upon request — at stated intervals 
— and by fixed quantities, and paid for accordingly. In the 
early years the water rates were sometimes lower then today, 
but the supply not so generous. In 1879, for instance, the 
rate was $1.00 per month for domestic service, again increased 
to $1.50, back to 75 cents and then again within two years, 
$1.00. It would depend upon the supply. Hours for sprin- 
kling were also fixed. These conditions prevailed until 1882, 
when increasing demands, through the coming of new settlers, 
and growth of the groves, necessitated more water. It was 
the real beginning of a water shortage which later became 
something of a menace. In 1882, primarily because of the 
expiration of the Orange Grove Association's first charter, 
a new company was formed to take charge of the water 
system in behalf of the owners. This incorporation was 
effected March 18th, 1882, under the name of the Pasadena 
Land & Water Company, with the following Directors : O. E. 
Dougherty, President; P. M. Green, Vice-President; Henry 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 359 

G. Bennett, Secretary; Sherman Washburn, Treasurer; C. H. 
Watts, Edson Turner, and A. K. McQuilling (who later 
became Zanzero). Of these men only Bennett, Washburn and 
McQuilling survive and it is worth stating that most of them 
retained their positions in the company while they lived, or 
until it became a part of the City's water system. When the 
new company was formed there was a total of 100 miners' 
inches of water in the entire supply, measured in November, 
prior to the winter rains. Scrutinizing the minutes of the 
early meetings of the Orange Grove Association, one can find 
many interesting, if seemingly unimportant, entries in those 
records. They, in fact, reflect the occurrences connected with 
the progress of the Colony and the difficulties associated with 
its development, especially connected with the water. Some 
who had always before looked upon a water supply as theirs 
for the taking, found themselves hampered by conditions that 
sometimes chafed. One prominent settler had his supply cut 
off for tampering with the pipes and refusing compliance with 
regulations. An entry for $125.00 cash for "sheep pas- 
turage" denotes that the city was built on a once sheep pas- 
ture. 

Lake Vineyard Water Company 

When, in 1876, B. D. Wilson subdivided, for sale, the 2,500 
acres adjoining the Indiana Colony on the east (Fair Oaks 
Avenue was the dividing line), he conveyed to the Lake Vine- 
yard Land & Water Company — the name under which the 
tract was organized — his remaining interests in the waters of 
the Arroyo Seco, pertaining to these lands. This supply came 
from the Arroyo stream and various springs — the Flutter- 
wheel, Tibbetts and Ivy, so called; all, in fact, having their 
origin in the Arroyo Seco and its tributaries. A reservoir 
was constructed at Fair Oaks Avenue and Mountain Street, 
not then cemented, but only mud-lined, as had been the Orange 
Grove reservoir, and to this the water came, at first, in a mere 
muddy furrow. Of course this kind of water was obnoxious. 
A ditch, in time, succeeded the furrow, which was not much 
better, especially when a gopher or snake gave up the ghost 
in it and was for a while undiscovered. A pup might there 
find a watery grave. Then again, a gopher would tunnel into 
the bottom of the ditch and give a new direction to its waters, 
providing indeed almost a bottomless pit, much to the annoy- 



360 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

ance of the settlers. But in course of time these catastrophes 
were checked and a cemented ditch and iron pipes made the 
sufferers forget their tribulations. 

The Painter & Ball Tract had its own separate waters 
which it acquired with the land, and spent much money in 
developing them. These rights consisted of " developed and 
undeveloped waters" in the Arroyo Seco, in section 5, town- 
ship 1 north, range 12 west, Government lands ; water in the 
Negro Canyon, and in Brown Canyon, confluent of the Arroyo 
Seco. The Painter & Ball corporation organized in 1885 the 
North Pasadena Water Company. B. F. Ball was Presi- 
dent, and M. D. Painter, Secretary. B. 0. Clark, John Allin 
and J. H. Painter were additional Directors. This was a 
"mutual" company, the water going with the land as 
its necessary appurtenance, its business being conducted by 
the stockholders for their mutual interest, no dividends being- 
paid, as was also the case with the two larger companies. An 
assessment was, in fact, levied upon the stock of this company 
of $5 per share, at the time of its incorporation in 1885, to 
pay for certain improvements that were required to be made. 
Prior to this the Painter & Ball interests, being superior, gov- 
erned the corporation. 

The Water Question — Continued 

the feud between the east and the west and its final settlement. 

Owing to continued, increasing demands upon the water 
supplies, the resources of these several companies were at 
times taxed. The laying out of new streets and the draft 
upon the water supply to sprinkle them, was another severe 
drain. "More water" was the constant cry, and a more 
systematic use of it was the echo. Water experts differed as 
to the water resources, some claiming that there were large 
underground streams flowing beneath Pasadena which it was 
only necessary to tap to obtain any amount needed, now and 
in the future. Others, with just as strong arguments, opposed 
this theory and advised purchasing outside water bearing 
lands, or living streams, and adding them to those in use. In 
the meantime, the several companies were striving to increase 
the flow of the springs and to discover new supplies, and with 
some success. The "Ohio Well," the "Copelin Well," and 
the "Painter Well" are evidences of this success. A "dry" 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 361 

winter or two accented the situation, especially when there 
came a time when the West Side Company, which had been 
buying some surplusage from the Lake Vineyard Company, 
was unable to regularly obtain its extra supply — there being 
none to spare. In consequence, there was a time when Orange 
Grove Avenue, the "show street" of the town, could not be 
sprinkled, much to the disgust and discomfort of all who 
traveled on it.* It was as yet but a "dirt road," not the fine 
macadamized boulevard it is now. As the source of nearly 
all the water from the Arroyo Seco, for both Colonies, was 
primarily the same, except in instances stated, an equitable 
division upon the ownership bases was a matter of jealous 
exactitude and gave rise to considerable controversy. Yet it 
is doubtless true that both companies endeavored to fairly 
divide these waters upon their ownership basis. The diffi- 
culty was to come to an agreement whereby development work 
and distribution could proceed, but this was finally accom- 
plished. 

The West Side Company had reorganized and rein- 
corporated as stated, and became the "Pasadena Land & 
Water Company" and took steps towards a better under- 
standing with the Lake Vineyard Company to the end that 
development proceed. 

In 1884 the Lake Vineyard Company also proceeded to 
reorganize. Up to that time its waters were divided into 
"shares," a "share" being l/500th part of all the waters 
belonging to that company, and in its proportion to the entire 
tract ; a theoretical division, so far as it had been carried out 
in practice, yet an ownership tenaciously insisted upon by 
some, even after the company had changed into a stock corpo- 
ration. The purpose of this reincorporation was hastened by 
serious storms in the spring of 1884 and the need of money 
to repair damages. Judge Magee was active in promoting 
the change. It was brought about at a meeting of stock- 
holders, or rather "shareholders," where the plan was dis- 
cussed and a board of directors elected consisting of S. Town- 
send, C. C. Brown, C. C. Thompson, S. Stratton, James 
Clarke, G. A. Stamm and J. W. Wood. Townsend was chosen 
as President, Magee as Secretary and Attorney, and Brown, 
Treasurer. There were to be 5,000 shares of a par value of 

*At one time money was raised by subscription to pay for sprinkling Orange 
Grove Avenue. 



362 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

$50 with an assumed paid up value of $30. In this manner 
two shares of stock would represent one acre of land instead 
of one "share" representing five acres. This plan was pre- 
sented to the shareholders and they were invited to exchange 
their "shares" for the new stock issue pro rata. Many did 
so at once, but there were some opponents to the plan. C. C. 
Brown, for instance, who, notwithstanding he was a member 
of the board of directors, did not favor the plan, fearing that, 
ultimately, the owners of the land might be deprived of their 
vested rights. The fear was never justified, and in time 
Brown came in with the others. An assessment of 45 cents 
per share was levied at once, and again one of 12 cents in 
December of the same year (1884) for repairing damages, 
etc., caused by the torrential rains of that season. Notwith- 
standing the apparant advantages of the new scheme, it 
became a contentious issue and led to many discussions. 
These discussions and meetings resulted in bringing new con- 
verts to the plan, and the stock was gradually being 
exchanged. In the election for directors on January 25th, 
1886, a new board was chosen — after a sprightly contest — 
consisting of C. C. Brown, M. H. Weight, Justus Brockway, 
Thos. Banbury, H. F. Goodwin, E. Williams and Oscar Free- 
man. This new board labored to bring about a consolidation 
of the Lake Vineyard and the Pasadena Land & Water Com- 
pany into one working organization. The stockholders, by 
vote, May 4th, 1885, and by a large majority, approved this 
plan. By this election the strife came to an end between the 
two companies. Each company had its separate board of 
directors and conducted its own affairs, but they met in 
amicable spirit, settled all differences and proceeded to make 
the much desired developments and improvements in both 
tracts. The outcome was soon apparent in the largely 
increased supply of water and its improved system of dis- 
tribution. Several miles of new pipe was laid and other 
important improvements inaugurated. 

The rapid developments incident to the boom period and 
the subdivision of acres into town lots necessitated the divi- 
sion of water stock into fractional parts corresponding to the 
exact area of the lots ; it being thought essential to do this in 
order to protect the lot purchaser and insure his rights to 
water. In this plan very much inconvenience ensued and the 
amount of bookkeeping was burdensome. This policy was 




PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 363 

eventually suspended, and it thus happened 

in the course of a few years that this stock 

was sold — independently of the land — at a 

low price and gradually absorbed by spec- E ; 

ulators who foresaw its future value. As 

low as $10 to $15 per share was paid for 

this stock which was later sold to the city 

for $115 per share (for Lake Vineyard 

stock), when the company became part of 

the municipal plant. Many believed that 

the water companies were negligent of 

their duties when they permitted the stock 

to be separated from the land in this way. henry g bennett 

The directors defended their action by Long Time Secretary Pasadena 

pointing out the advantages that had ac- 
crued by attaching this floating stock to heretofore "dry" 
land, thus giving it, according to practice, a "water right," a 
custom also abandoned very soon as it was seen that the stock 
might in this way be used to the distribution of the water sup- 
ply to limits that could not be taken care of. The directors of 
the Lake Vineyard Company, in office at the time the City pur- 
chased, were as follows: C. M. Parker (President); James 
Clarke; Oscar Freman; George A. Durrell; C. C. Brown; E. 
H. Royce and John Allin. George Durrell was Secretary. 
These men managed the affairs of the corporation carefully 
and economically and gave satisfactory service to its cus- 
tomers. 

The Pasadena Land and Water Company 

The Pasadena Land and Water Company after its 
organization as such continued along conservative but pro- 
gressive lines. Henry G. Bennett had been secretary of the 
company almost from its beginning and so continued until 
1904, when he retired to devote himself to travel and recrea- 
tion. Wm. McQuilling succeeded him as secretary and so 
continued while the life of the company existed. Other officers 
came in at various periods to fill vacancies ; Walter Wotkyns 
and W. R. Staats among the number. 0. R. Dougherty, 
President, resigned in 1891 and was succeeded by A. K. 
McQuilling who had been Zanzero for many years, and was 
an authority on the affairs of the company. Washburn 
remained as treasurer until the company was sold to the city. 



364 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Bennett, Washburn and McQuilling were examples of long and 
faithful years of service for the "good of the cause." In 
1885 the company increased its capital stock from $50,000 to 
$75,000, increasing its shares to 3,000. From 1887, when the 
two companies came to an amicable agreement as to develop- 
ment and ownership, their history was an earnest effort to 
supply the city with an ample water supply of the purest kind. 
At the time the agreement was effected, the Pasadena Land 
and Water Company had 750 consumers and an income of 
nearly $30,000 per annum. It had 10 miles of water pipe and 
was valued at $250,000, with a bonded debt of $50,000. At the 
same time the Lake Vineyard Company had 1,200 customers 
with an income of about $40,000. It had 58 miles of pipe in 
its distributing system, and no debts. This company had at 
this time a total of 178 miners' inches of water — summer 
measurement — The Pasadena Water Company having 100 
inches, a total of 278 miners' inches. As there were about 
2,000 users at the time, each were thus entitled to about 400 
gallons per capita daily, based upon the then estimated 
population of the city. During the past few years both com- 
panies had prospected for water in various localities 
tributary or probably tributary, to their supplies. In 1894 
the Lake Vineyard Company paid $4,500 for certain lands 
known as the Elliott & Eichardson tract which gave them 
joint ownership with the Pasadena Land and Water Company. 
This enabled them to do development work in co-operation. 
The various presidents of the Lake Vineyard Company 
were: Stephen Townsend; C. C. Brown; Justus Brockway; 
C. T. Hopkins; B. Williams; Geo. E. Meharry; John Allin 
and Charles M. Parker. Gr. T. Durrell was secretary of the 
company when it was sold to the city. 




CHAPTER XXXIX 

Municipal Water 

|S Pasadena spread its wings and took into its fold 
the lands contiguous on its north — the Painter & 
Ball lands — and an enlarged area beyond its east- 
ern boundaries, the desire for a uniform water 
system — uniform in price and equitable conditions 
controlling its use, and avoidance of undue waste — became 
urgent. The price of water charged by one company, as, for 
example, the North Pasadena Water Company, was higher 
than the others because the cost of maintaining the system 
and distributing the water was relatively greater. The Lake 
Vineyard Company had more water per capita, and charged 
less, than either of the other companies. Meters had been 
installed and wastage checked, and the Lake Vineyard Com- 
pany would at times give " rebates " to consumers — in effect, 
dividends. Year by year the streets required more and more 
water, or at least did until the oiling practice came into vogue 
and many of them were macadamized or surfaced with 
asphalt. 

There is no doubt that all of the companies furnished water 
as cheaply as could be done under prevailing conditions. But 
the municipal ownership of public utilities idea had been 
germinating: it had become popular in other places and was 
a growing idea here. Why not consolidate the three corpo- 
rations now furnishing water, rehabilitate the entire plant 
and reduce the cost to the consumer? But there arose the 
question, who owns the water? Why the owners of the land, 
of course! Why then assess ourselves to pay ourselves for 
what we now own ? Why, indeed ? ' ' But, ' ' said the man who 
had bought water stock and carefully laid it aside for just 
this opportunity, " I must be reimbursed for the stock I hold." 
A conundrum that now showed the impropriety that had been 
permitted when this separation of water stock and land was 
allowed. Some real estate agents sold lots to customers who 
were unfamiliar with the conditions, and retained the water 
stock, quietly pocketing it ; the owner not being aware of the 
trick, or not caring. Owners, also, sold the land and retained 

365 



366 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

the stock. This thrifty practice resulted in much stock becom- 
ing secluded for just such a situation as now arose. So the 
speculator in this stock demanded his "rights," and in the 
end profited by the demand. Of course, the purchaser of 
such stock in the open market was not subject to criticism. 
The question of what the city should pay for the water prop- 
erties became a vexing and difficult one — an issue upon 
which many contenders differed. Public meetings were 
held and the question fought out with earnestness, not to say 
acerbity. The directors of the several companies expressed 
a willingness to come to terms which would be agreeable all 
around and were ready to meet proposals with due regard 
to every interest affected. The Board of Trade, at a largely 
attended meeting held in the Green Hotel banquet room July 
14th, 1898, had pledged itself to municipal ownership of water 
in unmistakable terms. At this meeting C. D. Daggett made 
a strong and earnest plea in favor of the proposition and 
was seconded by H. Geohegan and others equally earnest. 
This was the beginning of a concrete movement in this ques- 
tion. A committee, of which George A. Gibbs was chairman, 
was appointed to take up the question with the water com- 
panies, and with citizens generally, in order to "ascertain 
the trend of sentiment," and also to procure the co-operation 
of the City Council. Gibbs did appear before the Council, 
September 5th, presented the resolutions adopted by the 
Board of Trade, and besought that body to secure options 
upon certain lands on Glenarm Street in the southern section 
and on a piece of land near the well of the Painter & Ball 
corporation for experimental wells. The action was duly 
taken, resulting eventually in the "Ohio" well. 

Despite the general desire that the "water question," as 
it was called, should be permanently settled somehow, and 
the inclination towards municipal ownership, it was some 
years before a definite program was reached. Finally the 
sentiment became concrete, and when W. H. Yedder became 
mayor it was his determination to put it squarely to the 
voter. With this end in view, the water corporations were 
urged to submit proposals for consideration. The companies 
secured expert advice and finally submitted propositions to 
sell as follows : From the Lake Vineyard Company, $382,- 
500 ; from the Pasadena Land and Water Company, $245,000 — 
a total of $627,500 from the two main companies. The North 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 367 

Pasadena Land and Water Company (Painter & Ball com- 
pany), $80,000. The East Pasadena Land and Water Com- 
pany (the Franklin wells, a private company that had 
developed water in the southeastern section of the city), 
$68,750. To purchase "The Narrows" (the fifty acres of 
land supposed to be "water bearing " in the valley below), 
$25,000. Also for new construction and betterments, $198,750, 
a total of $1,000,000. These six propositions were unani- 
mously agreed to by the Council on March 8th, 1905, and 
submitted to the voters at an election on March 23d. The 
result of the vote was as follows : 

Proposition No. 1, for $627,500— Yes, 1,389 ; no, 577. 
Proposition No. 2, for $80,000— Yes, 1,413 ; no, 543. 
Proposition No. 3, for $68,750— Yes, 1,136 ; no, 804. 
Proposition No. 4, for $25,000— Yes, 1,459 ; no, 515. 
Proposition No. 5, for $198,750— Yes, 1,412 ; no, 540. 

On the final proposition, for $1,000,000, which would 
embrace all preceding ones, the vote was : Yes, 1,333 ; no, 
574. As it required a two-thirds vote to approve, it will be 
seen that all of the propositions carried excepting No. 3, 
which failed by a close margin. There was a great feeling 
of satisfaction expressed on every hand that this important 
issue had seemingly been settled. I may here say that the 
mayor and his Council worked laboriously to the coveted 
end, F. E. Twombly, chairman of the water committee of that 
body, doing much intelligent instruction work to enlighten 
the public. Also, a Board of Trade committee, which had 
been appointed to promote the campaign, put up as usual 
great effort under the direction of Harry Geohegan, its chair- 
man. 

The Voter Is Defeated 

Now it came to pass that, whereas, the voter, who had 
urged personally, and who at the polls had given his assent 
to the acquisition of the water plants, feeling now assured 
of the attainment of his hopes, went his way rejoicing that 
the administration that would succeed the presently retiring 
one must, perforce, carry out the sentiments expressed at the 
polls by such large majority. But he discovered to his dis- 
may, and very soon, that it was not fair sailing for municipal 
water. The election, which occurred in April, placed William 
Waterhouse at the helm of affairs, and with him certain mem- 



368 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

bers of the Council who had opposed the purchase of the 
water plant or, at least, the proposition as had been pre- 
sented to the voter and approved at the polls. Particularly 
was this true of C. J. Crandall and W. T. Eoot, Sr. Mayor 
Waterhouse was also believed to be antagonistic to the plan. 
It was up to this new administration to carry out the details 
of the water bond issue, for as the Vedder administration 
expired within a month of the bond election, it had insuffi- 
cient time to carry out the necessary details. Under Mayor 
Waterhouse 's instructions, City Attorney Fitzgerald took up 
the matter with Messrs. Dillon and Hubbard, noted bond 
experts of New York, and submitted pro forma certain alleged 
facts connected with the late water bond election. Mayor 
Waterhouse went to New York on this business, and in a short 
time the people were astounded to hear that this eminent 
firm of Niew York attorneys had declared ' ' on the question as 
submitted " that the election was illegal, and therefore the 
whole transaction null and void ! So the water propagandists 
were knocked out and the hard work was to be done over! 
It may be true that a legal loophole for this action existed; 
anyhow, it was not worth while contesting this eminent opin- 
ion while a mayor and Council were unfavorable to the plan, 
so the situation was acquiesced in, though unwillingly. 

When Thomas Earley succeeded Waterhouse as mayor, 
in 1907, the purchase of the water plants was taken up once 
again. Earley 's campaign was made largely upon that issue, 
and his election seemed to assure its approval. But by this 
time the water companies refused to sell for the same price 
as before, claiming that betterments had increased their 
values. But they did submit offers to sell on the following 
basis : 

For the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and 

Water Company $ 492,990.00 

For the Pasadena Land and Water Company. . . . 297,000.00 
For the North Pasadena Land and Water Com- 
pany 120,000.00 

For the Franklin Street well 55,000.00 

For betterments and extensions 160,000.00 

Grand total $1 425,000.00 

The increase shown over previous prices was due to better- 
ments that had been made since the election of 1905. But the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 369 

voter was by this time unsettled in his convictions by reason 
of conflicting' statements and an unprepared feeling, and was 
waiting to be educated. 

The consequence was that many did not vote at all and 
the proposition lost by a vote taken September 24th, 1908, 
whereby, in a vote of 3,563, the entire five propositions were 
beaten by an average of about 200. 

Yet Another Defeat ! 

Still another defeat was suffered during Earley's admin- 
istration for these bonds. This time the propositions included 
only the purchase of the Lake Vineyard plant, the Pasadena 
Water Company and the North Pasadena Water Company 
for $568,000, $301,000 and $131,000 respectively— a total of 
$1,000,000— and also the additional sum of $200,000 for 
improvements and extensions. This election was held Jan- 
uary 26th, 1910, and again defeated, lacking an average of 
less than 300 votes in the 3,227 cast to carry. So once again 
the municipal water proponents were doomed to disappoint- 
ment. Personal disputes and rancor, engendered through 
some blighted ambitions and carefully nurtured animosities, 
were the chief causes of this result. And it was true, also, 
that many persons, well satisfied with existing conditions, 
the cost of water and its good management by the various 
boards, preferred that no change be made. Others, also, 
opposed the municipal ownership idea, believing that a power- 
ful political machine would ultimately prove subversive of 
civic good and civic advancement. Aside of these objections 
there was a feeling that the prices asked were too high, for 
while engineers ' estimates had been their basis, these esti- 
mates were obtained from engineers only under direction of 
the several companies. 

Municipal Water a Fact 

Mayor Earley was deeply chagrined at the third failure 
of this his pet project, as were his friends who had induced 
him to become their candidate for a second term largely to 
insure its success. The differences that grew out of the water 
question had drifted into serious controversies and created a 
bitterness that became a matter of much concern to those 
who had heretofore boasted with indulgent affection of the 
"get together" spirit of Pasadena. Many other matters of 



370 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

importance demanded attention, but were submerged in this 
endless squabble. Some members of the Board of Trade 
decided to make one more earnest and concentrated attempt 
to harmonize these differences, and once again endeavor to 
agree. The term of Mayor Earley was to expire in May, 
1911, and it was proposed that a candidate who might be 
acceptable to both factions be selected, the rancor that had 
characterized the past buried and some common ground of 
agreement found. William Thum was proposed by some of 
the opponents in past fights, such as E. H. Lockwood and 
George F. Kernaghan, and he was accepted as the proper man 
by many. Thum was retired from active business and stood 
well in the community. On August 22d, 1910, the Board of 
Trade had created a water committee of twenty-five to take up 
the water question in all of its details, ascertain the real value 
of the plants, and, in fact, go into the primal question of the 
source and amount of water in use, wastage and possible ulti- 
mate supply. H. W. Magee was made chairman of this 
committee (afterwards succeeded by F. E. Wilcox). Subcom- 
mittees were created to investigate all questions pertinent to 
values, ultimate needs and supply, Owens Eiver, consolidation 
of companies, and, in fact, every question bearing upon the 
whole matter in issue. 

William Thum, as chairman of the committee on the 
amount of water available and necessary, gave the subject 
of this committee much attention and rendered a number of 
reports in relation to its work, which became the basis of 
future statistics, and, also, it may be said, some controversy. 
But these exhaustive reports which Chairman Thum pre- 
pared directed attention towards himself and formed the basis 
of his acceptability as a mayoralty candidate. 

The proposition, under the purvey of the Board of Trade 
committee, was entered into thoroughly, every feature of it. 
The committee engaged Burdett Moody, an engineer of repu- 
tation, to make an appraisal that would at least give the citi- 
zen a fair idea of what he was asked to pay for. Engineer 
Moody reported the following values: 

The Lake Vineyard Company $ 621,622.31 

The Pasadena Land and Water Company 353,312.75 

North Pasadena Land and Water Company 194,217.89 

A grand total of .$1,151,152.89 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 371 

The committee recommended that a bond issue of $1,250,- 
000 be asked, the difference in amount being regarded as 
necessary for immediate improvements and overhead expenses 
incident to acquirement by the city. It may here be said that 
the suggestion that Pasadena purchase its water supply from 
the Owens Eiver supply going into Los Angeles was met with 
the information that Los Angeles would not (or could not, 
legally) sell to outside communities unless they consolidated 
with that city. (Later determined to be a legal fact.) 

William Thum was elected mayor, April 3d, 1911, by a 
vote of 2,265 over E. L. Metcalf, who received 1,724. He at 
once began careful consideration of the supreme issue, and 
on June 27th, 1912, it once more came to a vote and carried, 
the vote standing 4,581 for and only 457 against — a highly 
satisfying consummation of a desirable object. Not only was 
this dispute settled, but the public mind became attuned and 
forgot very largely past animosities. 

In due time the final details were worked out and the 
Council took steps to carry out the transaction and take over 
the various properties. According to the existing charter, a 
water commission was required to have charge of this work. 
The mayor appointed the following as such : George F. Ker- 
naghan, Thomas D. Allin, J. M. Harvey, Fred E. Wilcox and 
William Thum. (Kernaghan later resigned and C. P. McAll- 
ister succeeded him.) These appointments were effective 
December 8th, 1911, and on that date the entire water sys- 
tems were turned over to this board in behalf of the city, 
and were operated by it until the commissioners elected under 
the amended charter took office in May, 1912. 

Municipal Watee 

THE COMMISSION ASSUMES CHARGE. 

As has been stated, the water commission took possession 
of the various plants, and under direction of the Council 
proceeded to operate them. Not very much was done except 
to mark time, as a change in administration was anticipated, 
and, in fact, occurred in the following spring (1913), when 
the commission form of government was adopted. Then 
Commissioner Salisbury was chosen to take charge of the 
water system as part of his assignment of duties. 

Fortunately, Salisbury had been for many years connected 



372 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

with the Lake Vineyard Company and therefore had just the 
abundance of experience required. 

S. B. Morris was appointed chief engineer, and William 
Selbie business manager — both capable men. 

The primary object of the purchase of these various plants 
had been to equalize rates by avoiding duplication of work 
and to systematize work and improvements. Many pipe lines 
were about in their last stages of usefulness, and other 
improvements imperative. An equitable distribution of water 
was also demanded. 

After the commission took charge these matters received 
attention and gradually the entire system is being brought 
to a desired state of efficiency. The Woodbury wells were 
purchased for $35,000, and the Franklin Street well for 
$20,000. The Atlanta Street well, a new well, was constructed 
and equipped at a cost of over $15,000, and the Sheldon Ave- 
nue reservoir completed. A 24-inch main, for fire protection, 
was laid on Colorado Street between Fair Oaks and Euclid 
avenues, at a cost of $25,000. On July 1st, 1917, the con- 
ditions prevailing were very measurably superior to what 
they were when the system was taken over. 

During the fiscal year ending with that date, the gross 
revenue was $239,186.55 from a total distribution of water 
of 210,913,300 cubic feet, distributed at a cost of $57,312.57 
for maintenance and operation, which, with various other 
expenses, aggregated $165,182.21, leaving a net profit of $74,- 
004.34, which after deducting interest on bonds and sinking 
fund, showed a net profit of about 4 per cent on value. 

During the same period a total of ninety-two gallons of 
water per capita per day was consumed in the city. The 
present cost to the consumer is 60 cents per 300 cubic feet ; or, 
if in excess up to 1,000 cubic feet, 8 cents per 100 feet. The 
system embraces nine pumping plants, and ten reservoirs with 
a capacity of 60,338,000 gallons, all weather protected and 
concrete lined. There are in use about 1,000,000 feet of pip- 
ing, 12,555 meters for domestic and 183 for irrigating uses. 

On July 1st, 1917, the assets of the plant reached a grand 
total of $1,672,356.69, including $158,500 for water value, 'this 
being the same value allowed for it when the original pur- 
chase was made. 

As an offset to this valuation there is accrued estimated, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 373 

but not yet realized, depreciation to the plant of $162,336.47, 
which would give real value as $1,510,020.22. 

The main items making up this value are: 

Water value $158,500.00 

Real estate, includes reservoir lands, water right 

lands, pump lands and all other lands 192,319.91 

Water collecting system properties, including 

dams, supply mains, tunnels, etc 132,601.17 

Pumping system plants, equipment and tools 147,168.31 

Distribution system street mains, gates, services, 

reservoirs, etc 920,779.32 

Office and general equipment, tools and vehicles . . . 25,490.24 

There is no doubt that the municipal water plant is a 
success. One must not judge by the cost alone, but to the 
satisfactory distribution and the improved conditions obtain- 
ing. Extraordinary expenses that have been incurred will 
be eliminated in future reports, and in time cost to the con- 
sumer will be less as new demands cease. 

It must be borne in mind also that considerable areas have 
been added to the city during the past three years — Linda 
Vista, San Rafael Heights and Pasadena Heights, thus adding 
to the cost of distribution, etc. 





CHAPTER XL 

Municipal Light 

MUNICIPAL lighting plant was Pasadena's first 
experiment in the conduct of public utilities. Its 
origin came about through the obstinacy of two fac- 
tions, and the refusal of each to acknowledge the 
other's attitude as being either just or reasonable. 
The Edison Company had grown from the Pasadena Electric 
Light and Power Company, a corporation plodding along and 
taking slow toll as grew the city, and finally becoming part 
of the more powerful Edison Company which now dominates 
the electrical energy field in Southern California, with enor- 
mous resources of power and tremendous facilities for doing 
business. The Pasadena field was important enough in its 
day, and is still of account, but compared with its main field 
it is but a small unit. The Edison Company became owner 
by purchase of the local company and, uncontested, for many 
years, gave the only source of electrical light and energy in 
this city. Perhaps it grew careless, perhaps it lacked a 
knowledge of conditions, or it may have needed a good diplo- 
mat to smooth over difficulties and a willingness to correct 
defects in the system. At all events, there was some com- 
plaint about the quality of the light furnished and also the 
price paid for city light. The result was that the usual 
monthly demand for payment upon the contract for street 
lighting by the company was in time refused by the mayor 
and Council upon the advice of their legal counsel. Under 
the law the price could be regulated by the Council, but no 
effort, seemingly, was made upon either side to effect an 
understanding and adjustment of differences. It is not essen- 
tial that this history lay the blame or plead for either faction; 
it is sufficient that because of the lack of friendly entente 
the Council and many people clamored for a municipal lighting- 
plant — and got it. It was claimed that upon the " advice of 
an expert" — name withheld — that a plant sufficient to light 
the streets and business houses, as well as a large proportion 
of residences, could be installed for $125,000. And this was 

374 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 375 

the sum that Mayor Waterhouse and the Council desired to 
have voted for the purpose. 

Experts opposing the proposition, asserted that this sum 
was absurdly inadequate, and pointed to the investment of 
four times that amount by the Edison Company in proof of 
their contention. A public meeting called to consider the 
project, resulted chiefly in accusations and recriminations. 
But the Council passed a resolution calling for a bond election 
for the sum of $125,000, and this election was held May 3d, 
1906, when the proposition was carried by a vote of 944 for 
and 451 against. As a two-thirds vote was required, the 
necessary majority was but fourteen more than sufficient — so 
close that a good campaign could have easily changed the 
result ! But the Edison Company did not have the politician 
at hand. The astute leader was not in evidence on either side 
of the contest, but hot-headed disputants were in plenty. 
Under the direction of Charles M. Glass, a young electrician 
who was supposed to have furnished the data for prior esti- 
mates, the work was begun and finished sufficiently to begin 
operations July 4th, 1907. Before the work had progressed 
far it was realized that the amount of $125,000 was insuffi- 
cient, as predicted by its opponents, and a special tax levy 
was made in 1906 to raise the sum of $52,332 required. Then 
began the natural business rivalry of the Edison Company 
in its endeavor to retain its old patrons and at least share 
the new business. The first essay was in the reduction of 
price. Prior to the bond election it had been 15 cents per 
kilowatt hour, but had been reduced to 12 cents just at the 
time when competition from the city became imminent. Each 
retaliatory reduction by the municipal plant was undercut 
by the Edison Company until the city was selling light for 
5 cents per kilowatt hour ; then competition offered a rate of 4 
cents. At this point the city invoked the law, and appealed 
its case to the state board of railroad commissioners, which 
is a board of referee in cases of unjust competition. This 
board sustained the contention of the city that the rate of the 
Edison Company was an "unjust restraint of trade " "and 
destructive of competition, ' ' and ordered the Edison Company 
to raise its rate to that of the municipal rate. 

Charles M. Glass was superseded as manager of the light- 
ing plant by C. W. Koiner in 1907. Koiner has given entire 
satisfaction by his capacity as an electrical expert and his 



376 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

business management of the enterprise. As was predicted, 
the first bond issue, together with the tax levy following, 
proved inadequate to establish a plant and deliver light 
throughout the city. Additional territory annexed to the city 
made a still further demand upon its resources, so that on 
February 20th, 1908, the additional amount of $50,000 in 
4i/o per cent bonds was voted; and in 1909 $150,000 more 
(4 per cent). So that today the total bond issue for this 
purpose has been $325,000, which, together with the $52,332 
tax levy, makes a direct cost of $377,332. 

Also the sum of $40,000 was " borrowed" from the general 
fund in 1906 to tide over urgent needs for immediate demands 
to carry out improvements which the bonds had not taken 
care of. The last installment of this sum was paid back to 
the general fund in June, 1917, from the surplus profits of the 
company. The total bonded indebtedness outstanding, as 
per balance sheet July 1st, 1917, was $250,625. 

Many extensions and improvements have been inaugurated 
from the earnings of the plant during the past ten years. 
The system now covers almost the entire corporate limits. 
In December, 1916, a contract was made to supply a portion 
of Los Angeles with power from the surplus now manufac- 
tured. It is interesting to note that when the system was 
installed the needs of the city demanded 300 arcs, 966 40- 
candlepower Tungstens, 53 32-candlepower carbons and 17 
60-candlepower Tungstens. The total candlepower in use at 
that time was for street lighting, 50,000. There are now in 
use 550,000 candlepower consisting of 1,811 80-candlepower 
Mazda lamps, 30 100-candlepower Mazda lamps, 44 250-candle- 
power Mazda lamps, 82 400-candlepower Mazda lamps, 145 
600-candlepower Mazda lamps, 1 1,000-candlepower Mazda 
lamp, 14 40- watt red signal lamps, 35 60-watt alley lights, 7 
100-watt alley lights and also 1,603 ornamental street lighting 
posts equipped with lamps of various kinds and design. 

At this writing (1917) the city plant is supplying over 
9,000 customers, lighting the streets of the city and also fur- 
nishing considerable commercial power. According to Super- 
intendent Koiner's official report, the total appraised value 
of the municipal plant, including real estate, generators, lines, 
meters, etc., was on June 30th, 1917, $685,681.55, which 
allowed a depreciation account to date of $239,359.80. The 
total earnings from all sources for the fiscal year according 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



377 



to same report was $248,614.17, while the total operating 
expenses on all accounts was $130,453.66, with a gross surplus 
from beginning to date of $208,767.46, or a net surplus of 
$195,517.46 as per same statement, also showing a net return 
of 10.41 per cent for the current year on investment. The cost 
of street lighting and city department was $142,853.23. Upon 
some streets nitrogen lamps are being used in place of the 
old style " arcs" with superior effect. 





CHAPTER XLI 

The Postoffice 

uncle sam has always been careful of pasadena *s mail and 
though sometimes slow, treats his clients with fine con- 
sideration. 

■ 

HE history of the postoffice is a fair replica of Pasa- 
dena's general growth and prosperity. One of the 
first needs of a new community is a postoffice, and 
it was not very long after the settlement, known as 
the Indiana Colony, discovered that mail coming 
through the Los Angeles office, and dependent upon the casual 
and irregular calls of neighbors who might happen over there, 
was an unsatisfactory situation. As long as little Morton 
Banbury was able to go on his pony to school in that town, 
and, in his neighborly politeness and good nature bring back 
with him his neighbor's mail, no serious complaints were 
made, or a better service demanded. But one day Morton 
became ill and ceased his trips, and finally died. Then it 
became urgent that the Colony must have its own mail service. 
Then the first movement was made by the settlers to obtain 
a postoffice, and a petition was accordingly forwarded to 
Washington to this end in 1875. In conformity with this 
request, the postoffice department authorized such an office — 
named Pasadena — with Josiah Locke as its first presiding 
genius. The name Pasadena had been created by the settlers 
as the new name for the Colony, this action being taken 
because the postal authorities would not recognize such an 
appellation as " Indiana Colony." But before the office was 
actually established, Mr. Locke died whilst upon a visit to his 
home city, Indianapolis ; and no immediate steps being taken 
to renew the application, the office was discontinued before it 
had actively begun operations. It was not until the following 
year — 1876 — that the office was again established with Henry 
T. Hollingsworth as postmaster, who in due time qualified, 
and established the office in one corner of his father's store, 
which stood just where now stands the Pasadena Savings and 
Trust Company, on Colorado Street, near Fair Oaks Avenue. 

378 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 379 

Hollingsworth's appointment was dated September 21st, 1876 
— the exact date of beginning operations being shortly subse- 
quent thereto. Pasadena's first postmaster yet lives and 
enjoys existence in Los Angeles. 

Behold then, Pasadena was on the official map of the United 
States, and its first Federal official was drawing down a salary 
of $12 per annum ! True, Postmaster Hollingsworth diverted 
himself in the interim of official affairs by selling such trifles 
as sugar, a packet of tea — green or black — as might perchance 
suit the good customer's tastes ; or mayhap, a garden hoe was 
the demand. Thus life went merrily, if quietly, in those 
primitive days. The postmaster was also the village watch 
fixer, having a bench in one corner of his father's shop. 
These were great days when the total output from that post- 
office perhaps equaled a dozen or two pieces of mail daily! 
After the date above mentioned, with a real postoffice at home, 
no more obligation was due our neighbor, Los Angeles, for 
mail service, except as its custodian in transit. The mail 
was received a la Hombre el Caballos, which, literally, disen- 
tangled into plain English, means that an equine steed, plus 
man — to-wit, that D. M. Graham, with his horse and buggy — 
consented for the benefits of the drive to go daily to Los 
Angeles, ten miles away, and fetch over the mail. An exceed- 
ingly satisfactory arrangement. Thus our first mail carrier 
was also, in fact, one of our subsequent "first citizens," a 
prominent and influential one, too. 

Presently W. T. Vore began a stage line to the City of 
the Angels, and by virtue of this became Mr. Graham's suc- 
cessor as mail carrier. 

Mail by Rail 

This method prevailed until 1886, when the Southern 
California Railway, now the Santa Fe, came and revolution- 
ized things, and soon obtained the contract for carrying our 
mails. Hence, with this bettered service, instead of receiving 
but one mail daily as heretofore, we now received two or 
three. 

But it was quite an event in those days to go down to the 
postoffice about the hour when that stage was due and there 
await it as it came scurrying in. The waiting patrons kept 
their eyes turned to West Colorado Street, and when at last 
the stage appeared on the top of the hill — the four horses 
swinging gaily along as if aware that the home stretch 



380 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

brought them near their evening meal, the driver flourishing 
his whip and chirping cheerily to his prancing team — there 
was cheerful excitement for all. When, finally, the stage 
drew up at the platform, the mail thrown out and quickly 
retrieved by the waiting postmaster, all thoughts became cen- 
tered on the contents of that pouch. Those getting mail were 
the envied ones, for likely it came from the far off home folks 
"back East" — Indiana, Iowa, Illinois — and farther still ! And 
it was with eager hands that they received the craved missive 
from the dear ones there. It is certain that no time was lost 
in getting at the contents. 

When Hollingsworth, Sr., sold his store business to S. 
Washburn, the postoffice continued in charge of young Henry 
T., but in 1879 he resigned, and his brother, Arthur S., was 
appointed to succeed him, his appointment being dated June 
18th, 1879. When E. Williams bought out Washburn's busi- 
ness he found Arthur Hollingsworth quite willing to give up 
the meagre income that went to him as postmaster and then 
we find it officially read, ' ' R. Williams, Postmaster. ' ' Arthur 
S. Hollingsworth is now a retired resident of Pasadena. 

Here is the order of appointment from beginning to pres- 
ent date (1917) : 

Office first established March 15th, 1875, and Josiah Locke 
named as postmaster. Office discontinued, December 30th, 
1875, by neglect to rename postmaster in place of Locke, 
deceased. Office re-established September 21st, 1876. Henry 
T. Hollingsworth, postmaster. 

Arthur S. Hollingsworth, appointed June 18th, 1879. 

Eomayne Williams, appointed April 7th, 1880. 

A. 0. Bristol, appointed July 21st, 1885. 

B. T. Smith, appointed October 25th, 1886. 
Frank H. Oxner, appointed March 25th, 1887. 
Willis U. Masters, appointed June 20th, 1887. 
George F. Kernaghan, appointed March 19th, 1891. 
Webster Wotkyns, appointed January, 1896. 

J. W. Wood, appointed January 14th, 1900; reappointed 
twice to 1914. (A fourth appointment failed of confirmation 
by democratic Senate.) 

Clark McLain, appointed January, 1914 (incumbent). 

When Williams moved into his new store building in 1883, 
he appointed Charles A. Sawtelle assistant postmaster, and 
Sawtelle performed this service for several years. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 381 

In Bristol's term came the boom, and poor Bristol was 
swamped — overwhelmed — with mail his inadequate force 
couldn't handle. The department at "Washington was slow 
to understand the situation, no additional allowance was made 
for clerk hire and Bristol was reduced to despair and soon 
had spent out of his own pocket all he cared to for an unheed- 
ing government. Volunteer assistance proved inadequate, 
and Bristol resigned by Western Union, locked the door and 
quit! Then came Bayard T. Smith, the budding democratic 
politician, who believed he was the man of the hour. He got 
the appointment and went manfully to work. He, too, began 
spending his own money, trying to clear up the premises of 
mail, now covering the floor in every direction — yet unopened 
pouches and sacks. The office had been removed the year 
before to a room on North Fair Oaks Avenue, and here volun- 
teers worked night and day to straighten out the muss. Smith, 
after exhausting his efforts to obtain help from Washington, 
began to believe that republics were indeed ungrateful — and 
him a good democrat at that ! But patience was at end, and 
the continued drain upon his purse finished Smith's self-sacri- 
fice, and he resigned in favor of his deputy, F. H. Oxner. 
But Oxner, probably in fever of apprehension, died before 
receiving his official notice. Then Willis Masters stepped 
into the breach, June 20th, 1887. He knew the troubles in 
store and their probable cost. But he took hold pluckily. He, 
too, found much accumulated mail. But he was no luckier 
than his predecessors in obtaining the required allowance for 
additional clerical hire. In six months he was minus over 
$2,000 of his own funds, which he had spent in anticipation of 
a generous government repaying. I believe that money was 
never repaid to him! Or at least not all of it. A fund of 
nearly $600 was raised among business men to pay for extra 
clerks, and an extra room was hired where the unopened mail 
could be handled. Finally, after extraordinary efforts and 
repeated wires, the situation was in a measure relieved. But 
Masters had an experience that was costly. Under Masters, 
Charles A. Smith, now cashier of the Bank of Savings, Oak- 
land, was assistant postmaster. The late W. B. Clapp was 
also a clerk under Masters. 

It was on July 1st, 1889, that a free delivery service was 
inaugurated, the first carriers being Alexander C. Drake, 
L. T. Lincoln, A. L. Petrie, Charles R. Dillman and E. Watson. 



382 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Lincoln has the distinction of being Carrier No. 1 and Petrie 
No. 2. Both Dillman and Lincoln are yet engaged in their 
plodding rounds, bnt Petrie chose to retire in 1914 on his 
pension as a Civil War veteran — after forty-three years' 
service with Uncle Sam in connection with the postal depart- 
ment and more than three more as a soldier! A long and 
honorable record, whose scars he bears bravely — does Alex- 
ander Petrie. 

With constantly growing business it was not long before 
better quarters were needed, and in March, 1888, the office 
was moved to the Morgan Block on South Eaymond Avenue. 
Again for the same reason to West Colorado Street and 
Ward Place in 1898. Despite two enlargements of the prem- 
ises, still another move was made in 1907 to the corner of Eay- 
mond Avenue and Holly Street, whence its final progress 
ended in the new Federal building on East Colorado Street. 

The New Postoffice 

Pasadena should be proud of its Federal building. Despite 
urgent requests made at the time, it was not set back from 
the street line, as it should have been; nevertheless it is a 
building fine enough to brag about, and its lobby is a thing 
of beauty and good taste. It is fitting that due honor be 
given in these pages to the man to whose urgency we are 
indebted for this edifice. That man is James McLachlan, who 
represented this congressional district for six terms. Pasa- 
dena was his home town, and he labored years to secure a 
proper appropriation, refusing to accept a lesser one than 
he believed fitting for a city like Pasadena. At last he 
obtained $50,000 for a suitable lot.* Then again obtaining 
$200,000 for a building, the new edifice was finished and occu- 
pied September 20th, 1915. 

At this writing there is a force of thirty-eight carriers 
and thirty-four clerks regularly employed in the business of 
handling mail in the main office and its two substations — one 
tit North Pasadena and one at East Pasadena. Besides these 
substations there are lettered stations located on North Lake 
Avenue and Washington Street and in a store at 21 West 
Colorado Street. 

As an exhibit of the business transacted I quote from the 
official report for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1917: 

*This lot cost $93,000, but the difference was raised among property owners 
in the vicinity, — -iG. V. Sturdevant being assiduous in this canvass. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 383 

Receipts from sale of stamps, etc $170,845.00 

Domestic money orders issued (42,521) 298,433.12 

Domestic money orders paid (30,800) 318,683.26 

Foreign money orders issued and paid (3,698) 61,235.32 

Henry Ramel has been the efficient assistant postmaster 
since 1904 ; Frank C. Robinson, superintendent of mails. 
W. S. Laurie, clerk in charge of Station A. 
G. B. Tuthill, clerk in charge of Station B. 
Frank C. Robinson, superintendent. 
Walter R. Chambers, money order clerk. 
H. A. Vallette, foreman of carriers. 




CHAPTER XLII 

The Boaed of Trade, City Planning Association and Mer- 
chants' Association 

USEFUL ORGANIZATIONS WHOSE LABORS HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANT TO 
PASADENA. 



it IP 

my 



|EGrUN when the town was struggling with the serious 
problems of a real estate smash-up, which had 
destroyed the equilibrium of business and changed 
a prosperous outlook to an appalling one, the Board 
of Trade nourished one paramount idea then which 
was to introduce into this community opportunities for labor 
and employment. For there were at the time many men out 
of employment, and many more leaving the community in 
order to maintain themselves elsewhere. Much concern was 
manifested over these conditions. True, there were others 
who, with far-seeing vision, believed manufactories intro- 
duced here would, with their attendant drawbacks of smoke 
and noise, destroy the very features that must in time draw 
to Pasadena the seeker for quiet homes and beautiful sur- 
roundings. But notwithstanding these opposing opinions, it 
was deemed important that some immediate movement be 
made to induce capital as well as people to come and to 
remain — a gospel of rehabilitation and permanency. So the 
name Board of Trade was agreed upon, even though trade 
was not the ultimate slogan advocated. After thirty years' 
experience it is now conceded that the chief labors of the 
board have not been devoted to securing trade, but to propa- 
gating its more esthetic capital, of climate, of home building 
and of such civic problems as enter into the physical and 
intellectual well being of the citizen and his community. In 
doing this it has through its direction and influence sustained 
and cultivated the "get together" and "pull together" idea, 
which has done so much in making of communal integrity 
and progress. At a recent meeting of this Board of Trade 
a resolution conferring the distinction of "honorary" mem- 
bership upon those who were "charter" members of the 
organization or who have been continuous members for 

384 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 385 

twenty-five years, it was discovered that there were yet living 
twenty-six men who were eligible to this honor, and it may be 
in place to name them here, in the order of their joining and 
dating back to April, 1888: 

T. P. Lnkens, J. W. Wood, John McDonald, M. E. Wood, 
W. E. Staats, Heman Dyer, George F. Kernaghan, Frank S. 
Wallace, Frank C. Bolt, J. W. Woodworth, M. H. Weight, 
Calvin Hartwell, W. B. Longhery, G. A. Gibbs, N. W. Bell, 
A. K. McQnilling, Byron Lisk, C. M. Simpson, F. E. Harris, 
Eeynolds & Van Nuys, Eobert Strong, C. D. Daggett, H. C. 
Hotaling, F. E. Twombly, Blinn Lumber Company. 

Certificate No. 1 was issued to E. F. Hurlbnt, now 
deceased. 

The conditions above referred to, having impressed them- 
selves npon the leading men of affairs in the city, caused, in 
1888, a call to be made for a meeting to take steps toward 
some concrete plan. Previously — in 1887 — at the height of 
the boom, a real estate exchange had been organized and 
comprised many members. But the principal purpose of 
that body was to. regulate transactions in real estate and pro- 
tect the innocent purchaser from the wiles of possible guileful 
and irresponsible dealers. As the words of its by-laws 
expressed it, "To throw safeguards around inexperienced 
owners or purchasers !" Also to fix the rates of commission 
charged (5 per cent on the first $1,000 and 2y 2 per cent on 
balance). W. L. Carter was president of the exchange, which 
survived the B. B. — "busted boom" — but a short while, 
expiring with heartrending groans over the late defunct. 

But it was felt that there must be a body of performers 
whose interests extended further than the mere real estate 
deals naturally concerning a real estate exchange. Hence, on 
March 9th, 1888, a few well known men met in Williams Hall 
to discuss the new idea, at which time the proposition was 
fully considered and debated. The outcome of this meeting 
was the adoption of a resolution which read as follows : 
"Eesolved, that the citizens of Pasadena, in meeting assem- 
bled, acknowledge the necessity of an active Board of Trade, 
and herewith subscribe our names for the purpose of said 
organization." Colonel W. A. Eay, who was president of 
the San Gabriel Valley Bank, was chairman of this meeting, 
and E. E. Fordham was secretary. The membership fee was 
fixed at $25. The committee appointed to solicit members 



386 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

were B. A. O'Neill, J. Banbury and Stephen Townsend. A 
committee on by-laws, composed of B. A. O'Neill, J. Ban- 
bury, J. W. Wood, J. H. Painter, F. W. Martin, Judge Enoch 
Kioght, G. A. Swartwout, W. U. Masters, W. L. Carter, Henry 
Bennett and W. A. Bay, was appointed and the meeting 
adjourned. Then, on March 13th, a meeting of this last com- 
mittee was held in Judge Knight's office in the Fish Block, 
and selected the first board of directors, as follows : W. A. 
Ray, Enoch Knight, J. Banbury, W. U. Masters, J. H. Painter, 
Gh A. Swartwout and B. A. O'Neill. 

On April 2d the first regular meeting of the board was 
held in room 12 in the Fish Block, which had been secured 
for the temporary headquarters of the board, and an organiza- 
tion was effected by electing W. U. Masters president ; W. A. 
Ray, vice president, and E. E. Fordham, secretary, the secre- 
tary's salary being fixed at $25 per month, his duties not being 
then very onerous. These selections were confirmed at a 
meeting of the organization held May 1st, 1888. This meeting 
was held in Judge Knight's office. At this meeting report 
of the membership committee was presented which showed 
that 154 names had already been signed to the agreement. 
But it should be said here that out of the 154 only 51 quali- 
fied by paying the required $25 annual membership dues — a 
rather discouraging falling off between promise and perform- 
ance. But the financial conditions became pretty bad in 1888. 

An address to the public was prepared and published in 
the local newspapers, which read in part: "The purposes 
of this organization are to arouse public opinion upon all 
matters of vital importance to Pasadena. To gather and dis- 
seminate information concerning the resources of Pasadena 
for the benefit of immigrants, capitalists and business men 
seeking homes or investments therein; to aid and encourage 
the establishment of such manufactories as may be essential 
to utilize the various products of the soil, and to stimulate 
the establishment of other industries as may be requisite and 
necessary for the wants or necessities of the people, * * * 
and to procure for the city of Pasadena such privileges and 
concessions from railway or other corporations or individuals 
as may be suggested by the wants and necessities of our peo- 
pj e * * # -f- wa i c } l over anc [ a id the business of the city 

government, * * * and to bring to bear the true senti- 
ments of the people in behalf of wise, energetic and compre- 
hensive municipal legislation." 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 387 

That was quite an extensive job the little Board of Trade 
of 1888 cut out for itself to perform ! In 1889 the board had 
not grown in numbers ; on the contrary, the membership had 
fallen off when the time for collecting the annual dues came 
on again ; and in order to induce a continuance in the charter 
ranks the dues were reduced to $10, and again to $5, in the 
year 1893. That was when a strong effort was made to popu- 
larize the board. 

Almost immediately, in pursuance of one of its stated 
objects, efforts were made to secure the establishment of 
' ' industries. ' ' A proposition was submitted and taken under 
advisement, at a meeting held May 4th, 1888, from one Simp- 
son, who desired to move his "foundry" from Huntington to 
Pasadena. The project was sponsored by F. D. Stevens (yet 
in the hardware business), who vouched for said Simpson's 
standing and reputation. But Simpson wanted a lot no less 
than 80x175 feet in size and $1,000 cash as a bonus. Efforts 
to obtain this by public subscription failed of success and 
nothing real came of it. Then the board went on political rec- 
ord when an invitation was extended to the Democratic State 
Convention, then in session at Los Angeles, to visit "our 
city." This was the first practical "glad hand" exercise of 
the Board of Trade, precursor of the many more to follow, 
and in which it has exceeded the fondest hopes of its founders. 
Next a fruit-canning project was proposed ; one L. J. Bennett 
offering to establish the same, if given a lot 200x200 feet and 
$1,500 cash. This, too, waned for want of the wherewithal. 
For cash was a comparatively scarce article at that period. 
In the dull years following numerous projects met with simi- 
lar fate to these named. Meetings were held in advocacy 
of railroad projects, boulevard to Los Angeles (repeatedly 
attempted) and especially to raise $100,000 for the purpose 
of building a road to Mount Wilson, and otherwise aiding in 
the construction of the telescope on Mount Harvard. A can- 
nery, a watch factory, and not the least — a proper site for a 
coffin factory! In 1900 the records show a membership of 
174 — not a bad showing considering the population was less 
than 10,000 ; in fact, just about the proportion it is today. 
It grew to 500 in 1905, when D. W. Herlihy became its presi- 
dent and D. W. Coolidge secretary — both of whom devoted 
much energy, as is their constitutional bent, toward livening 
up the board and the town generally.* 



388 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The energies of the Board of Trade have been synonymous 
with the greater growth and prosperity of Pasadena, and 
every movement in the greater projects connected with the 
city's welfare have been " fathered, ' ' if not in fact, actively 
waged, by the board through its directorate and members 
acting in committees, great and small. So, in fact, the board 
has represented the concrete expression of our citizens in 
public movements — excepting politics; politics and religion 
being the tabooed issues. Thus it has heartily engaged in 
campaigns for : A woman's college, school bonds, parks, pub- 
licity, good roads, the Colorado Street bridge, and, above all, 
made itself the public reception committee upon many occa- 
sions when bodies visiting the state, or in convention within 
it, were made welcome to the city and its hospitalities offered 
in the way that Pasadena has almost all of its own. Automo- 
biles by the score, or even hundreds, have been freely prof- 
fered wherewith to convey the visitors about the city, with 
the usual appendage of luncheon on hotel piazza or upon some 
fair greensward amid flowering bowers. This is the glad 
Western way! 

Every year there is an annual banquet when the members — 
now nearly 700 — gather about a festive board in the happy 
"get together" spirit, listen to the voice of the orator, revive 
the spell of good fellowship and rekindle the spirit of new 
resolves. Also, the frequent midday luncheons, when the 
men get together and discuss live topics of current interest 
and purpose, to still further strengthen the binding ties and 
promote the spirit of fraternity and forwardness. 

In the course of its work the Board of Trade has sent out 
tons and tons of literature, publishing at intervals handsome 
volumes or folders, or of illustrated descriptive material, 
showing the remote homeseeker the charms and resources of 

*Past Presidents of the Board— W. U. Masters, 1888-1889-1890-1891-1892; 
C. H. Keyes, 1893-1894-1895; Colin Stewart, 1896; H. E. Hertel, 1897; Walter 
A. Edwards, 1898;' Charles D. Daggett, 1899-1900-1901; Frank P. Boynton, 1902- 
1903; D. W. Herlihy, 1904; D. M. Linnard, 1905; A. J. Bertonneau, 1906; C. D. 
Sargent, 1907; E. T. Off, 1908-1909; Harry Geohegan, 1910; B. D. Davis, 1911; 
L. H. Turner, 1912; William F. Knight, 1913; T. P. Lukens, 1914; Fred E. 
Wilcox, 1915-1916-1917, incumbent. 

Past Secretaries of the Board — E. E. Fordham, 1888; Enoch Knight, 1889; 
John G. Bossiter, 1890-1891; Webster Wotkyns, 1892; William H. Knight, 1893; 
M. E. Wood, 1894-1895; Frank P. Boynton, 1896-1897-1898; Theodore Coleman, 
1899; J. M. Sickler, 1900-1901; W. B. Clark, 1902; D. W. Coolidge, 1903-1904- 
1905-1906-1907; A. J. Bertonneau, 1908-1909-1910-1911-1912; E. E. Sorver, 1912- 
1913-1914-1915-1916; J. H. Pearman, present secretary; Miss E. B. Hethering- 
ton, assistant. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 389 

the community. It is thus the practical interpreter of the 
things existent in this land of desire. It is a carping critic 
indeed who would cavil at the Pasadena Board of Trade or 
decry its splendid usefulness and necessity. 

Some of Its Impoetant Peojects 

Mention has been made of many projects the Board of 
Trade has advocated and furthered. Notable among them, 
especially of later years, has been the highway bonds, when 
in 1909 the county supervisors asked a vote for the expendi- 
ture of $3,500,000 for 300 miles of good roads in the county 
of Los Angeles. The Board of Trade got its members lined 
up on this project and made a systematic fight for it, winning 
it largely by Pasadena's enthusiasm and large vote. E. T. 
Off was president of the board at this time and signalized 
bis capacity for arduous work. 

The Coloeado Steeet Beidge 

Perhaps the most notable achievement, outside the Poly- 
technic High School group, for which the Board of Trade 
labored was the Colorado Street bridge. It has not only 
contributed much to the popularity of the city, making it a 
link in the splendid automobile driveway that lures thousands 
of pleasure seekers along the great valley boulevard, but is 
in itself a thing of beauty. Constructed of reinforced con- 
crete in a substantial way, it has not lost beauty of lines and 
curves in its substantiality. It is said to be one of the great 
concrete bridges of the United States, being 1,468 feet in 
length and 160 feet above the Arroyo bottom at its highest 
span, The cost was $200,000, with something added for the 
land approaches. As this bridge was to be a part of the 
county boulevard system, the supervisors appropriated 
$100,000 toward the cost of construction.* 

A propaganda for bonds to pay for this project was under- 
taken by the Board of Trade. Harry Geohegan was presi- 
dent of the board and A. Bertonneau secretary. I must give 
these men the credit of organizing an effective campaign. 

*Suggestive plans had been voluntarily made by the engineering firm of 
Williams & Nishkian and submitted by them for approval. Mayor Thum, how- 
ever, appointed Fred E. Wilcox as his architectural adviser and Waddell and 
Harrington was employed to make others. These differed little from the Wil- 
liams & Nishkian plans, however, but were accepted by the Mayor, and every- 
thing arranged for a vote upon the project. 



390 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

President Geohegan appointed a committee of twenty-five 
members of the board to determine whether this bridge should 
be built on a level with Colorado Street or at a lower level. 
Some objections had to be met, for certain residents near by 
believed their property would be damaged by the nearness 
of the bridge. These urged the "low" structure, but the 
committee decided upon the "high," and determined, with 
the assistance of the engineer's office and architect, the place 
of beginning, its course and landing spot. Its completion vin- 
dicated their judgment. W. F. Knight was chairman of the 
campaign committee, and to his insistence and determination 
many opposing opinions were overcome and to his diplomacy 
belongs much credit for placating the strenuous ones. It 
required a hard campaign to induce the voter to accept the 
proposition, but it was accomplished by a vote of 5,270 for and 
813 against. Upon the adjustment of a case where condemna- 
tion proceedings were found necessary the Colorado Street 
approach to this bridge will be widened to double its present 
width, and this approach will then be beautified and parked 
and made much more attractive than it is now. At this same 
election the purchase of Monk Hill and Carmelita for park 
purposes were beaten. 

The City Planning Association 

In the year of our Lord 1914, it was believed, by a few 
men and women met in conclave that an organization for pro- 
moting high ideals in city beautification ; which, broadly, 
meant cleaning up neglected lots, bettering neglected street 
parkings and eliminating many other unsightly obscurations 
of the artistic landscape, would be a desirable thing for Pasa- 
dena. An organization for this purpose was effected with 
W. S. Keinholtz, George A. Damon, Mrs. F. B. Wetherby, 
Arthur Noble and Walter L. Newton as a " committee" 
directed to develop a " Pasadena Plan." This was the begin- 
ning of a large and compact organization, representing every 
active organized club or association in the city — about fifty 
in all. As a further development, it was decreed that Pasa- 
dena had made some fundamental errors of beginning which 
must be rectified as follows : The widening of Colorado 
Street ; the annexation of the Arroyo as a city park ; the elim- 
ination of railroad crossings; the establishment of a " civic 
center," and also numerous other important things; all of 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 391 

which, of course, must be done in co-operation with the city 
commissioners. But the paramount idea was never lost sight 
of; that was the beautification of the city and the completion 
of every undertaking, so that it would leave nothing undesir- 
able in the whole community; in fact, a perfect city. Walter 
L. Newton, a Throop graduate of engineering, under the 
advice of Professor Damon, prepared a new city map in con- 
formity with the projects in mind and has skillfully in this 
and many ways disclosed the aims of the City Planning Asso- 
ciation. As an example of its good work, in one year no less 
than 3,000 vacant lots were metamorphosed from unattractive 
weed-grown, neglected eyesores to less horrific things for the 
pleased gaze. Half a hundred or more projects have been 
considered by the association during the past three years, 
and are being added to constantly by the fodder whereon it 
feeds. So Pasadena is finding in this association a clearing 
house, as Dean Damon calls it, for ideas upon problems of 
civic beauty and utility. The horizon is widening, and it is 
expected that this body will plan and help to realize many 
important undertakings for the welfare of Pasadena in the 
coming years. Its headquarters at the Board of Trade rooms 
is an instructive lesson in its ambitions. William S. Kein- 
holtz is president and Mrs. Marta Carr secretary of the 
association. 

Mekchants' Association 

The Pasadena Merchants' Association was a sort of Dun 
or Bradstreet in its purposes when instituted, but in time 
assumed a broader scope, until now it has become a business 
organization with fraternal instincts. 

It was organized May 7th, 1896, as the Merchants' Pro- 
tective Association, when about seventy-five merchants got 
together in the Board of Trade rooms and formulated their 
plans. Its first president was J. R. Greer, Jr.; vice presi- 
dent, David F. Grilmore ; secretary, F. P. Boynton. 

Its board meets at regular intervals to consider business 
that affects the merchants of the city, most of whom are in 
its membership. Aside of this the fraternal spirit between 
business houses has grown into that of friendly co-operation. 
Once each year there is held a banquet by the members. 

The present officers are : President, E. Perkins ; vice presi- 
dent, A. S. Hadley; secretary, J. T. Sumner; A. D. Wood, 
S. T. Emmons, E. E. Sorver, W. T. Hall, directors. 




CHAPTER XLIII 

Paeks 

|HE glory of Pasadena is its arboreal beauty. Its 
homes are built in gardens, each by itself, and each 
having its park, its lawns, its flowers, trees and 
shrubbery. The streets, also, have their parkways 
of velvet grass and with shade trees perpetually 
green. Because of these facts there have been many who 
failed to believe in the need of public parks as necessities, as 
11 lungs' ' for the city, as they are sometimes called in densely 
built cities of stark and staring brick walls and desolate areas 
of unattractive streets and yards. There is some truth in 
this, yet the good people of Pasadena agitated the sentiment 
for parks until parks were an accomplished fact and more 
yet to come. The lungs must be large and lusty. 

In pursuance of this agitation came an election in 1902 
when the sum of $25,000 was voted to purchase of Charles 
Legge that tract of land containing 5.32 acres on North Ray- 
mond Avenue, now known as Library Park ; and at the same 
time the sum of $127,000 to purchase a tract of 10.37 acres, 
known now as Central Park. These parks were purchased 







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A VILLA GARDEN 

392 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 393 

during the regime of Mayor M. H. Weight, and to his efforts 
must be ascribed much of the credit that belongs to their 
acquirement. Of course, he was ably seconded in this by his 
Council and by other public spirited citizens. These tracts 
cf land were duly laid out and gradually beautified with trees 
and shrubbery, and are now charming and attractive adjuncts 
to the beauties of the city. 

La Pintokesca Pakk 

In 1915 the city commissioners purchased a small tract of 
land in North Pasadena, the site of the burned La Pintoresca 
Hotel, and transformed it into a sightly little park. It con- 
tains about three acres, and may, it is hoped, some time, have 
built upon it a branch library for the convenience of the resi- 
dents of that desirable section. This park cost $15,000, and 
was paid for from the general funds of the city. 

Akkoyo Pakk 

At its very doors Pasadena has always had one of the most 
beautiful and picturesque natural parks to be found any- 
where — the Arroyo Seco. The entire bed of the x i dry ' ' stream 
and its adjoining banks, in places as much as half a mile 
wide, and extending from the canyon's mouth in the moun- 
tains at the north to the city limits at the south, and beyond 
into the precincts of our sister city, Los Angeles, lies this 
splendid demesne, comprising 600 or more acres within the 
limits of Pasadena. These slopes and shallows, these verdant 
wooded banks and intervales, are fitted by Nature for their 
final dedication to just this purpose. 

Sturdy sycamores spread their giant arms and bow in 
neighborly greeting to live oak, alder and willow that form 
these charming glades. On the rugged arroyo banks oppor- 
tunity is offered for attractive arboreal effects in the hands 
of the landscape artist. Down these umbrageous retreats 
the arroyo trails its sluggish way in summer or may sweep 
in torrential turbulence after winter's storms, tearing boul- 
ders loose from their resting places. At the Devil's Grate, 
whose open portals permit the outflow of accumulated moun- 
tain streams, is soon to be built a retaining dam whose top 
will also serve as a bridge for La Canada traffic. The Arroyo 
waters gathering behind this dam will form a pond several 



394 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

hundred acres in extent, which may thus add a charming lake 
to the many other beauty spots of Pasadena. 

Strange to say, the voter once refused to bond the city 
to purchase this magnificent bit of natural park. The time 
was not auspicious then. But the city commissioners, in con- 
junction with some public spirited men, have been quietly 
acquiring this land and have purchased, from the city's gen- 
eral funds, no less than 400 acres already. Incidentally 
Messrs. Myron Hunt, T. P. Lukens, Mrs. Louis Best, William 
Mason, William Thum and S. T. Williams, who have been thus 
engaged, are also engaged upon beautification plans for these 
grounds. It is certain that before long Pasadena will have 
another park, one of unequaled natural beauty. 

In 1915 forty-five acres of Arroyo lands above the DeviPs 
Gate were purchased for $22,296. This land is a natural 
park, being covered with fine live oaks scattered in picturesque 
profusion over it, and is being gradually improved. 

An election to vote on a bond issue of $81,000 to purchase 
a six-acre tract for a playground and convention hall project 
was defeated in March, 1913, much to the regret of many. 
This tract of land, formerly part of the Carmelita property, 
was well adapted for the purposes intended, but the mood of 
the voter at the time did not correspond with the moods of 
the children who had played upon the grounds for some years. 
At the same time a bond issue of $54,000 for the purchase of 
Monk Hill, also for a city park, was defeated with the other 
projects. A poor year for bonds ! 

Brookside 

The need of a children's playground, larger, better 
equipped and other than the usual school grounds, and the 
defeat of the Carmelita purchase, led the city commissioners 
to set aside sixty acres on the bank of the Arroyo Seco for 
playground purposes. These grounds had been part of the 
Pasadena Land and Water Company's property and were 
included in the purchase by the city when it acquired the 
water companies in 1912. The grounds are well suited for 
their purpose, having baseball, tennis and other outdoor sport- 
ing facilities. A generous and benevolent woman, Mrs. E. W. 
Brooks, donated $5,000 for the purpose of building a swim- 
ming pool and plunge, which has been done in harmony with 
her wishes. The multitude of children who meet on these 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 395 

grounds attest their popularity and their need. It is "the 
old swimmin' hole" of the modern city boy, in fact, or at 
least its nearest approach for the city boy to get. 

Very appropriately, the commissioners honored this play- 
ground by calling it Broohside Park, both an attractive and 
a fitting name, in honor of the donor who made it immediately 
possible. 

The parks of the city are under the management of one of 
the commissioners. A superintendent has actual charge of 
the work upon these parks and under his attention the labor 
is performed. Jacob Albrecht has held this position for a 
number of years. 

Prior to the inauguration of the commission system a 
board of commissioners was appointed by the mayor, whose 
duties included the care of the streets and parks ; these duties 
included the planting, care and protection of street shade 
trees. Each street not already planted with shade trees had 
assigned for it certain varieties other than which none could 
be planted. The street trees are taken care of by the city, 
no owner of property aligning them having a right to do this. 
This insures protection and uniformity of attention. 

Busch's Gakdens 

One of the loveliest parks that can be found anywhere 
and whose fame has added to the reputation of Pasadena's 
attractions. 

Busch's Gardens is a private property owned by the heirs 
of Adolphus Busch, who died in 1916. But notwithstanding 
his death the people of Pasadena and visitors from all over 
the world have enjoyed its delights without any price what- 
ever, his generosity survives. 




A MODEST HOME 



396 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



Because Adolphus Busch enjoyed beautiful things in 
nature, he reclaimed an unattractive Arroyo bed, and adding 
it to his private park, and with the genius of R. G. Fraser, a 
Scotch Pasadena gardener of ideas, gave us this splendid 
sylvan demesne. It covers seventy-five acres of dreamland, 
and is a joy to the eye and soul to see. 

The thousands that visit this park each year testify to its 
charms and to the liberality of its benevolent owners. 





CHAPTER XLIV 

Just Politics 



OR many years partisan politics have been elimi- 
nated from "local" elections. The overwhelming 
republican sentiment gave little hopes of democratic 
aspirations receiving a reward, or more than casual 
recognition. Perhaps it was sympathy, perhaps 
the germination of the l i Civic Virtue ' ' spirit, that occasioned 
an early effort at the elimination of partisanship in local 
affairs. At any rate, when at a public meeting just prior to 
the city campaign of 1894 it was declared that "partisan" 
politics should be "taboo" the sentiment found, even then, 
many supporters. At that time a "Citizens" ticket for two 
members of the Board of City Trustees was named (March 
10th) consisting of H. G. Reynolds and Chas. Wooster; also 
F. P. Boynton was named for Treasurer, Heman Dyer, City 
Clerk, and W. S. Lacey for Marshal. Reynolds, Dyer and 
Lacey were elected, but it must be said that the issues were 
largely outside of the "non-partisan" feature. In 1898 the 
republicans held a mass meeting, at which such prominent 
partisans as C. M. Simpson, J. A. Buchanan, H. J. Vail. 
"Billy" Arthur, Ed Lockett and Judge Weed took the 
partisan attitude, while ' ' Father ' ' Crawford, Dr. Eli Fay and 
others the opposing side. A republican ticket was named, 
and also a "non-partisan" one was selected — a petition con- 
taining 600 names requesting it. At the ensuing election Ed 
Lockett, George Patten, H. M. Dobbins, C. C. Reynolds and 
T. C. Hoag were elected, all of them being active republicans 
and favoring partisan politics, excepting Hoag, who, though 
a republican, was in favor of non-partisanship, locally. A 
coincidence of names was given as the cause of Hoag's elec- 
tion, another, T. L. Hoag, an old time resident, being confused 
by many with the real candidate. Hoag was elected over Dr. 
Sumner T. Greene by only three votes! This, however, was 
the opening wedge for non-partisanship, and by tacit consent 

397 



398 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

no great efforts were made after that to introduce "party 
politics " in city elections, although some irreconcilables for 
a long time held stanchly to their convictions. 

I well remember, on one occasion, prior to a Democratic 
County Convention, "Bob" Furlong was seen sitting patiently 
and dignifiedly on an empty soap box on Williams' store 
porch. In front of him was a cigar box with perforated lid. 
Someone passing by inquired the reason of this lonesome state. 
"Why," said the genial "Bob," "I am holding an elec- 
tion for delegates to the Democratic Convention!" It was 
true even if it was funny. Furlong, Bayard T. Smith and A. 
0. Bristol were the candidates, and each received just six 
votes ! Which was the entire vote cast. Of course there were 
more than six Democrats in Pasadena — even in 1888 — but it 
was midsummer, and the other six were away ! The first real 
political contest in Pasadena was the presidential election of 
1876 — Hayes and Tilden. Hayes received sixty votes and 
Tilden just five. Two of those five voters yet cast their votes 
in Pasadena for the same old party. In 1879 P. G. Wooster 
received a chest decoration from the county sheriff, being duly 
appointed a deputy sheriff, with a tin star to wear on his 
manly bosom! I haven't heard that Wooster ever arrested 
anyone, but I am sure he could catch him, even yet, if it 
became a sprinting contest. 

The first election for state officials in Pasadena occurred 
in 1879, at which time P. M. Green was elected a member of 
the State Assembly. But Green was satisfied with one term 
in Sacramento, and J. F. Crank succeeded him at the next 
election for that office — in 1881. The first political club 
organized in Pasadena was in 1884, with Col. J. Banbury as 
its president and Ben E. Ward, secretary. It included every 
Republican in the Colony. In 1884 a candidate for Congress 
was to be elected. Pasadena was then in the Sixth District 
(now the Ninth) which at that time, embraced six counties, 
from, and including, Santa Cruz down to Los Angeles. A 
campaign over these six counties was an exacting and weary- 
ing affair, and left the candidate in no sweet tempered con- 
dition if he was beaten. Up to the year 1884 the District had 
always sent a Democratic representative to Washington, but 
the time had come when the Republicans believed it was 
opportune to elect a Republican ; therefore they began to cast 
about for the proper man. E. F. Spence, a Los Angeles 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



399 




JAMES McLACHLAN 
Representative in Congress , for 12 Years 



banker was announced, as was also 
W. A. Cheney (later elected superior 
judge). George H. Bonebrake, an- 
other Los Angeles banker, was also 
an aspirant. 

Col. H. H. Boyce, who later was 
co-owner — for a time — with Col. H. 
G. Otis in the Times, had longings in 
the same direction. Boyce was a 
smart and astute politician and a 
formidable candidate, but had not a 
large following. Boyce discovered 
that he could not land the nomination 
with either of the other candidates 
in the field and looked about for a 
"dark horse." The dark horse was 
discovered in the person of H. H. 
Markham of Pasadena, living quietly 
on his ranch, and up to that time, perhaps not dreaming of 
political preferment. Markham was induced to become a can- 
didate and his candidacy found much favor, especially in 
Pasadena — with the exception of Dr. 0. H. Conger. Conger 
made the air warm with his opposition, but it apparently did 
not cut an important figure in the result, for Markham was 
given endorsement at a convention held in Los Angeles, July 
23rd, 1884. H. W. Magee placed Markham in nomination with 
a stirring speech wherein the Colonel grew in military 
fame. His opponent was Hon. R. F. Del Valle of Los 
Angeles, an accomplished representative of an old Spanish 
family, and popular personally. At the County Convention 
September 24th of that year Judge Magee was nominated for 
the Assembly and Ben E. Ward for county recorder. Thus 
Pasadena had three candidates for important offices in that 
campaign. For local offices T. P. Lukens was a candidate for 
Justice of the Peace, as was also Otheman Stevens of San 
Gabriel.* Abbott Kinney of Kinneloa (now the Doge of 
Venice) was Magee 's opponent, and a Democrat of superior 
quality. T. K. Buff kin was nominated against Lukens by the 
Prohibitionists. Harry Price and George Little also were 
candidates for constable. The excitement of the campaign 

* Pasadena voted in San Gabriel Township at that time, and Stevens 
was the candidate for the township of San Gabriel, though also voted for in 
Pasadena. 



400 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

was Dr. 0. H. Conger's bitter opposition to Markham, and 
the discovery, a week before the election, that Magee was 
ineligible, because he lacked a few weeks of having resided 
the required three years in the state. Much lamentation by 
Magee 's supporters, and disgust by Magee — because he hadn't 
started west soon enough! A hasty meeting of the county 
committee remedied the situation by filling Magee's place with 
Colonel Banbury. Banbury sailed into the office without an 
effort, after Magee and Kinney had been lambasting each 
other for weeks ! It was a good Republican year, and Mark- 
ham won by a majority of a few hundred. All local Republican 
candidates won but Ben Ward, Ben losing by a close vote 
(twenty-four I believe). It was the presidential year, and it 
was the Blaine year. Blaine was a popular candidate in Pasa- 
dena as shown by the vote cast at that election. The total 
vote in Pasadena was 365, of which Blaine received 270 and 
Cleveland only 59. Markham received 298 and his opponent 49. 

In that year the first Prohibition political club was or- 
ganized in Pasadena, with Stephen Townsend, president, and 
Lyman Allen, secretary. The Democrats, though small in 
numbers, organized also. I believe that L. C. Winston was 
chief Democratic hustler at that time. Referring again to 
Colonel Boyce, it was at this time that he became associated 
with Harrison Gray Otis in the Times — the Republican 
political organ. Anyone who knew Boyce and Otis may easily 
guess what could happen when two such doughty warriors, 
each with a military personality, got together in close com- 
munion. The partnership did not last long, and they parted 
avowed enemies. Boyce started the Tribune, which became 
the bete noir of Otis as long as it was controlled by Boyce, and 
for years thereafter, for the odor of his sanctimony still clung 
to it — in the mind of the gallant Colonel of the Times. 

With the Tribune Boyce had a handy weapon of his own, 
and the editorial guns on both sides belched every morning, 
much to the joy of partisans on either side. The Arizona 
Kicker was outdistanced. The Tribune lost money and Boyce 
lost the Tribune; soon afterwards disappearing from the Los 
Angeles field of operations. Afterward, he was heard of in 
a political scandal in Ohio, and skipped from that bailiwick. 
He was killed by an automobile while crossing Broadway, New 
York, about the year 1910. 

Charles A. Gardner succeeded Lukens as justice of the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 401 

peace in 1885, upon Luken's resignation. Gardner was in 
1886 appointed police judge by the new board of trustees — 
being the first appointment of that body. Pasadena having 
incorporated as a city by the year 1886, was thereafter inde- 
pendent of its provincial political affiliations. Markham 
declining to again become a candidate for Congress, Pasadena 
had no candidates for any office that year, excepting for local 
positions which kept the politicians busy enough. In 1888 it 
was different. That was again a national election year, with 
Benjamin Harrison as the nominee of the Eepublican party 
against Grover Ceveland, who was then wearing the prestige 
of success by his election over Blaine in 1884. Colonel Ban- 
bury having received his "baptism of fire" politically, when 
he was a candidate for the Assembly, was now inclined to 
higher honors, and became, in 1888, a candidate for county 
treasurer, a position that had practically been controlled by 
the Hellman Bank of Los Angeles, then a powerful factor 
in politics there and also having had for years all the county 
moneys on deposit. It proposed to defend its own interests. 
Banbury was backed up by the First National and the Los 
Angeles National Banks, (of Los Angeles), which had a long- 
ing for at least part of these funds. So it was something of 
a bankers' contest. Banbury won by a good majority. The 
Democrats were strong enough, or at least important enough, 
to their party leaders to demand recognition in Pasadena in 
1888. Such leading men as W. U. Masters ; R. M. Furlong ; 
Bayard T. Smith; H. W. Hines and Wotkyns Brothers, "made 
a noise' ' that sounded like a threat, if their home town was 
overlooked and a place on the county ticket was conceded 
them. The one chosen for the honor was George Herrmann, 
who was named as county recorder. Now be it known, that 
George was as dapper a gentleman as ever walked down Col- 
orado Street on a sunny day, sartorially perfect and fair and 
smiling as a pleased canine any time one would meet him. 
Nevertheless, he was game, for it was a pretty sure thing that 
he would meet defeat, for a Democrat had little chance of 
election, even with Grover Cleveland heading the National 
ticket. George was not discouraged but began an active 
canvass. To get the rural vote was the problem. He had 
heard that the farmer was shy of the "city feller" and looked 
askance upon fine clothes — this was in ancient days before the 
automobile era. So George donned a negligee shirt with wide- 

26 



402 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

open collar, secured a straw hat of ancient vintage which he 
adorned with a few wisps of straw. His ' ' sparklers ' ' he care- 
fully laid away and with a last defiant twist of his fine mus- 
tache sallied forth to get the votes he needed — a fine spec- 
tacle of a farmer's boy. Alas, poor George! He was beaten 
scandalously. The Harrison Club, an organization of 200 
members was a noisy factor in that campaign in Pasadena. 
With long linen ulsters and "Grandpa Ben" hats, it was a 
picturesque crowd of active partisans. "Jim" McLachlan 
was president of this bunch, while Captain Simpson was Cap- 
tain of the Harrison Cadets, a marching club which also added 
zest to the campaign. Oh that I could once more brew such 
enthusiasm and "pep," over candidates and campaigns, as 
then gripped us all ! Once the Oro Fino Club of Los Angeles, 
just as noisy (or more so), just as energetic and just as ardent 
Bepublicans, came over to visit the Harrison Club and 
Morgan's Hall was the scene of an enthusiastic, even noisy, 
gathering. Many old fashioned political talks were indulged 
in. The Tippecanoe Club, composed of old men who had voted 
for the older Harrison in 1840 (Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!), 
were given places of honor on all occasions. An event of that 
campaign was a final rally (in the Tabernacle, I believe when 
one "Uncle Billy" Williams, an old fashioned, eloquent stump 
speaker from Indiana, gave one of his forceful addresses for 
which he had gained renown. Eliza A. Otis, wife of Colonel 
Otis of Los Angeles, recited an appropriate poem on that 
occasion also. The whole affair wound up with a street 
parade never before equalled in Pasadena. Hiram Staats, 
Will Glass and Harry Macomber composed a fife trio, while 
Park Michener led the "village band." Fireworks were 
burned in profusion on that occasion. It was the custom those 
days. 

John S. Mills made loud noises when the boys marched, 
and was very patriotic indeed. It was during the Blaine cam- 
paign that Whit Elliott and Billy Clapp organized an 
equestrian club of about thirty members, which, now and then 
proceeded to Los Angeles and joined in the political outbursts 
there. As I recall these forays I almost yet feel the pangs 
of unusual exercise that lingered for days after these 
occasions ! Leading politicians of the Bepublican faith were 
Harry Eose, Billy Arthur, John McDonald, "Mart" Weight, 
"Jim" Eossiter, Charley and Billy Swan, John S. Cox and 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 403 

others just as classy, but too numerous to be here mentioned. 
Among the few Democrats I have mentioned Masters, Furlong 
and Bristol. I must add another, C. F. Harris, who was 
a good talker, to this group. But it was about 1890 that Joe 
Simons broke in and began to pose as a "war horse"; which 
means a man who looks wise, talks mysteriously, and hangs 
on persistently to his party — right or wrong, win or lose. All 
of these things Joe did, and won fame at it. It only needed 
a success, such as came with Cleveland's election in 1884, and 
again in 1892, to perk up the spirits of the faithful Jeffer- 
sonian disciples. Joe's brother Walter was of later vintage, 
but became a shining light, too. 

It was in the year 1890 that James McLachlan first came 
into notice in California politics. "Jim," as everyone called 
him, won his spurs by becoming a candidate for district attor- 
ney and winning the race with a great majority, distancing 
all others on the county ticket. McLachlan was an attorney 
and partner of Alexander Metcalfe, and being a ready and 
impressive platform speaker, gained recognition in his first 
convention. When Jim pulled the "tremolo" stop in a speech, 
the front seats wept and pulled their handkerchiefs. His 
opponent at this time, Major Donnell, being a G. A. R. man 
was supposed to have a walk-over, but McLachlan 's speech 
when he was presented to the convention won him the nom- 
ination. 

The South Gets a Goveknob and Pasadena Is Honoked 

The state had been making the pretense of recognizing the 
northern and the southern ends alternately, in choosing its 
gubernatorial timber. Thus, in 1889, when nominations for 
state officers were pending, the south looked for recognition, 
and claimed the right to the selection of its executive head. 
Stoneman was then governor and a Democrat. General Stone- 
man had been living the quiet life of a retired army officer 
on his ranch at San Gabriel for many years, when the Demo- 
crats, believing his distinguished services in the Civil War 
would be a good card, nominated him and proved their guess 
by electing him. The army had the call in politics then. Mark- 
ham refused a renomination to Congress, which he could 
easily have had in 1886. He was a potential candidate for 
governor, when, in 1889, politicians in the South began to look 
about for the proper timber. Markham seemed to be the 



404 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

right person, and, though he had not specifically announced 
himself, his close friends knew that he was not making any 
strenuous refusals. A County Convention in Los Angeles 
first endorsed him, and he went to the State Convention at 
Sacramento with nearly a " solid south" behind him. Dan 
Burns was the Republican state "boss" then, or at least that 
convention raised him to this shining pinnacle; for, being a 
master of political strategy he so marshaled his delegations 
there as to secure the nomination of Markham over General 
Chipman and Judge Morrow, though at one time Morrow had 
an actual majority of votes ! Of course Burns was an impor- 
tant factor in state politics afterwards, and became a dominat- 
ing figure, though he later failed to reach his much desired 
political goal — a seat in the U. S. Senate. Markham was 
elected by about 8000 majority and took his official seat Janu- 
ary 1st, 1890. As governor, Markham did not forget his 
political friends when he began to make appointments. One 
of the earliest and most important was that of Judge Magee 
as a member of the State Bank Commission. Professor C. F. 
Holder was selected as Trustee of the State Normal School, 
which position he filled for two years. Upon his resignation, 
T. P. Lukens was appointed to succeed him. Professor E. T. 
Pierce was made head of the Chico State Normal School and 
J. W. Wood given a position as member of the State Board of 
Pharmacy. W. H. Wiley was appointed State Agricultural 
Park Commissioner and Professor T. C. S. Lowe, Yosemite 
Park Commissioner. Waldo M. York was selected to fill a 
vacancy, caused by death, upon the Superior Court bench of 
Los Angeles County. Besides these important appointments 
from Pasadena, several clerical positions were found for 
deserving young Republicans who had " fought in the faith," 
which means, had rustled votes, and otherwise made campaign 
noises. Among these were "Billy" Swan who went into the 
controller's office, and Charles Prince, who became a Capitol 
attache. Thus was virtue rewarded and the loaves handed to 
the faithful! 

Another quasi movement to eliminate party politics in 
local elections was attempted in 1890. Strangely enough, the 
movers in this had been heretofore classed with the extreme 
partisans, and to the onlooker it was suspicious. Doubtless 
some of these men, like C. M. Simpson, James Clarke and 
Tom Banbury, were sincere, but they were hoodwinked by the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 405 

astute Willis U. Masters, who being a rock-ribbed Democrat, 
despaired of success for any of his party under the official 
label. So the Machiavellian Masters, together with a feAV 
other Democrats, and with his good Republican friend Arthur 
Conger to aid, endeavored to succeed under a different guise. 
"More liberality," was the undercurrent of argument applied. 
So a convention was called, and met March 26th, 1890, of 
which Masters was chairman, and proceeded to select a ticket 
for city officers. For trustees it named C. M. Simpson ; A. K. 
McQuilling; Thomas Banbury and James Clarke; also T. P. 
Lukens "at large," Webster Wotkyns was named for City 
clerk, S. Washburn for city treasurer, and Captain Wakeley 
for city marshal. It was a good ticket, and all Republicans 
but one. The opposition put up, as trustees : A. F. M. Strong, 
Elisha Millard, B. F. Ball, C. M. Parker and Delos Arnold- 
all radical anti-saloon, in sentiment. For city marshal, D. R. 
McLean ; for city clerk, James Cambell, and for treasurer, W. 
T. Vore. This was called the "Peoples" Ticket. The result 
of this election, which took place April 14th, 1890, was a vic- 
tory for the entire "Citizens" ticket nominees for council, 
but the election of the "Peoples" candidates for the other, 
offices. The contest for treasurer resolved that issue into a 
friendly rivalry between the First National and the San 
Gabriel Valley banks, for securing the city money on deposit. 
Vore was the candidate of the former and Washburn of the 
latter. Washburn was defeated by the narrow margin of six- 
teen votes in a total vote of 1123. 

It was in 1890 that H. H. Rose— "Harry" by his friends- 
was appointed to the position of city recorder, yclept 
"Judge" of the police court, in place of P. A. Van Doren. 
Rose had been an active politician and a brainy one. This 
was his first "offense" as an office holder. He remained at 
this post until his term expired April 10th, 1894, and was suc- 
ceeded by J. Gr. ("Jim") Rossiter. Rossiter was called "Jim 
Blaine" Rossiter, because of his ebullient enthusiasm over the 
Maine statesman during the "Blaine year." Rose afterward 
became police judge in Los Angeles and then mayor of that 
city. 

It may be said that the "no politics" slogan cut less figure 
in this campaign than did the liquor question; in fact, the 
liquor issue became entirely paramount, as the campaign pro- 
gressed. In that year also, A. Gr. Throop, C. W. Buchanan 



406 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

and J. W. Wood were elected school trustees. In this year, 
too, W. S. Wright was a candidate for the Superior bench, 
and McLachlan, again, for district attorney; C. M. Simpson 
for county clerk and Col. Banbury for county treasurer. There 
was a local contest for delegates to the Republican County 
Convention, on the ground that so many candidates from 
Pasadena would militate against any one of them receiving a 
nomination. Simpson withdrew from the race, but no com- 
promise being effected between the others, the issue was car- 
ried to the caucuses which resulted in an agreement between 
the Wright and McLachlan forces, and they went into con- 
vention, pledged to both candidates. Wright received a hand- 
some vote but failed of a nomination, whereas both Banbury 
and McLachlan were given places on the ticket. No Pasadena 
Democrats were honored by nominations that year. Local 
candidates for 1892 were John S. Cox and 0. F. Weed, who 
were elected to the city council. Heman Dyer was elected city 
clerk, without opposition, and John Buchanan, city marshal. 
W. U. Masters was elected city treasurer over W. T. Vore by 
a majority of 29 in a vote of 611, and was the first Democrat 
elected to any office in Pasadena since Henry Gr. Bennett was 
elected school trustee in 1875. 

Eighteen hundred and ninety-two being a National cam- 
paign year, there was the usual stir consequent upon this fact. 
But the Republican party of California, as elsewhere, was in 
a distressed condition owing to the unpopularity of the Harri- 
son administration. His nomination came as a damper upon 
the Republicans. When the news of it arrived in Pasadena, 
there was not enough animation or joy to get up the usual rati- 
fication, until H. E. Lawrence, editor of a little weekly paper, 
got out his good American flag, and imbibing a little "wet 
goods" to cheer himself up, paraded the town with the flag 
held high. The old political veterans soon grew ashamed of 
their apathy and called a meeting in the Haymarket, where 
speeches were made by Ed. Lockett, J. A. Buchanan and 
others, which in a measure roused flagging interest. In this 
campaign C. M. Simpson, long time prominent in politics, a 
veteran and officer of the Civil War, became a candidate for 
the Assembly. At the same time ' ' Billy ' ' Arthur, a live young 
attorney who was earning his spurs in law, and in politics as 
well, thought the time was about ripe for a plunge in the same 
direction. Each of these candidates had a host of followers 



PASADENA— HISTOBICAL AND PERSONAL 407 

and there was a hot fight at the primaries for delegates. Simp- 
son won, and was afterwards placed in nomination by Arthur, 
who, in making the nomination speech, generously referred to 
his late opponent by saying, "I am going to nominate the win- 
ner; I know he will be a winner because he beat me at the 
primaries." Such was "Billy's" way. He was a good loser. 
A "Harrison Club" was again launched, with J. A. Buchanan, 
president; and earnest efforts made to fortify the spirits of 
the G. 0. P. in local political circles. It was pretty slow busi- 
ness, but Pasadena did its share faithfully. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1894-96 ; JAMES MCLACHLAN IS ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 
THE BRYAN FREE SILVER FOLLY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON CALI- 
FORNIA POLITICS, THE AMERICUS CLUB. 

James McLachlan had acquired additional popularity dur- 
ing his term as district attorney, and prominence as a political 
speaker. It was a logical result that he was nominated for 
Congress in the year 1894. Pitted against him was George S. 
Patton of San Gabriel, just then becoming known politically. 
Patton proved himself a capable man on the hustings, and a 
keen opponent of " Mac. ' ' The Prohibitionists had named one 
Bowman "to fill in," but McLachlan won easily. He again 
became a candidate in 1896. Charles A. Barlow, populist, 
was in the field, the populists then being in some force. Henry 
Patten — not related to George — was the Democratic nominee. 
It was plain that McLachlan was a certain winner in a tri- 
angular contest. In order to beat him Patten and Barlow 
drew straws to determine which of them should step aside for 
the other. Barlow won, obtained the endorsement of the 
Democratic party, and was elected by the slim majority of 
145 votes in the entire six counties! This was the "free 
silver" bunk year, with William J. Bryan to the fore. Bar- 
low was also a free silverite and other things, hence in favor 
with the many "free silver Republicans," who swarmed, in 
that eventful campaign. The Republican Congress Conven- 
tion had, with short-sighted folly, inserted a free silver plank 
in its platform, and McLachlan came home from it, practically 
pledged to this fallacy ; for the West generally, at that period, 
was strongly inclined in favor of free silver. It was a stun- 
ning blow, therefore, to these Republicans, when the National 
Republican Convention, in August following, declared un- 
equivocally for a gold standard. There was much side- 



408 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

stepping, but 4000 Republicans of Los Angeles County de- 
serted the G. 0. P. and supported William J. Bryan, defeating 
also the Republican candidate for Congress. 

Going back again to 1894: That year John S. Cox was 
again elected councilman, and with him H. M. Hamilton, 
T. P. Lukens and Sherman Washburn. Cox was made pre- 
siding officer of that body and was, in effect, " Mayor." 
Heman Dyer again trotted along and won an uncontested 
election for City Clerk, and H. C. Hotaling won the City 
Treasurership over P. G. Wooster, who was the candidate 
of the Prohibitionists, and made a good showing against a 
most popular competitor. Thomas J. Fleming, who was, 
finishing his first term of two years as County Treasurer, 
was again nominated and elected. "Tom" was a "Pasadena 
boy," having resided for several years in the Crown City. 
Captain Simpson was elected State Senator in 1894, thus 
graduating from the more humble office of assemblyman. 
Waldo M. York was this year elected Superior Judge. 

The campaign of 1896 was the great McKinley campaign 
— McKinley vs. Bryan, and was notable in the West, where 
at its beginning Bryan was the popular favorite because of 
his free silver sentiments, or 16 to 1 propaganda. Had the 
election occurred within 30 days after the nomination, Bryan 
would have swept the West, including California. One of the 
most convincing stump speakers ever produced by the state 
developed in this campaign. He was Duncan McKinlay of 
Santa Rosa, a house painter by occupation, but who woke up 
to the fact that he had forensic abilities. He campaigned 
throughout the state, making practical, plain and convincing 
arguments against the free jsilver doctrine, and recalling 
thousands of wavering and deserting Republicans back to 
the ranks. He addressed an audience of 2000 in the Pasa- 
dena Wigwam, a tent auditorium erected where the City Hall 
now stands. Many rousing meetings of both leading parties 
assembled in that canvas auditorium. It was in the first 
McKinley campaign that Lee Fairchild also blossomed 
mightily as a spellbinder and became very popular, because 
of the convincing illustrations he used in his speeches, and 
also because of the large store of amusing stories he told — 
the orator's strong resource. Lee was a guileless child of 
nature, who grew up somewhere in the wilds of Oregon, and 
descended upon the political firmament with great success 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 409 

and approval. Without possessing half the solidity of argu- 
ment that McKinlay did, he drew large crowds and passed for 
an orator. After the California campaign he continued his 
activities in New York, where he died a few years ago. Duncan 
McKinlay died after serving two terms in Congress, in 1914. 

The Ameeicus Club — A Roman Legion 

The most effective and most spectacular political march- 
ing club that ever walked the goose step in the West, was the 
renowned Americas Club of Pasadena. It is my most con- 
fident belief that this club saved the state for the Repub- 
lican party in 1896. It did this by reason of the quality of 
its membership, and because, through its activities, it awoke 
the then very apathetic Republican voters to their party duty, 
and replaced indifference or wavering fealty with a spirited 
renewal of enthusiasm, at a time when the political skies were 
very gloomy. The vote was so close in California that it went 
Republican by about 2000 votes only. Quoting from contem- 
porary newspaper reports, and also from vivid memories, I 
am only doing justice to the Americus Club when I name it as 
the Roman Legion of politics. Many of the gallant three hun- 
dred who composed that legion still reside in this community, 
and it is but giving them their just dues, when I exclaim with 
pride at these recollections. Quoting from The News of that 
time, I will recount some history of this organization which is 
worth preserving. 

On a summer day of 1896 — says the article — Dr. W. C. 
Smith dropped into Wood's drug store, and in course of a con- 
versation casually said that Pasadena "should organize a 
marching club for the campaign." The idea was well 
received by his hearer and names considered then and there 
of those who might be interested in the idea. It was agreed 
that a meeting should be called for the purpose, and such 
men as Newton S. Bangham (a National Guardman), H. I. 
Stuart, Edwin Stearns, H. M. Dobbins, Will E. Chapin, and 
a few more, were invited to be present. The response was 
eager and enthusiastic. The preliminary meeting resulted in 
others, and it was apparent that a good club of 50 members, 
perhaps as many as 100, could be prevailed upon to engage 
themselves for the campaign. The first officers were selected 
as follows : President, Edwin Stearns ; First Vice-President, 
W. C. Smith; Theodore A. Simpson, Second Vice-President; 



410 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Herbert C. Holt, Secretary, and E. J. Pyle, Treasurer. New- 
ton S. Bangham was chosen as Captain — a wise choice as was 
soon discovered. It was not supposed then that more than 
a single company conld be mustered. The popularity of the 
club was so great, however, that more than 300 members were 
enrolled, and also about fifty associates, or "contributing" 
members. Three companies were formed from these mem- 
bers and officered as military organizations. 

A battalion was eventually formed of these three com- 
panies, and Newton S. Bangham made major and its com- 
mander with the following staff: H. M. Dobbins, Adjutant; 
J. W. Wood, Surgeon, with rank of captain; John McDonald, 
Quartermaster; Edwin Stearns, Commissary Sergeant; W. 
E. Chapin, Ordnance Officer; J. G. Rossiter, Judge Advo- 
cate; G. A. Gibbs, Aide. 

Then there was a non-commissioned staff composed of 
H. I. Stuart, A. L. Manahan, Heman Dyer, J. A. Stafford, 
W. C. Smith, Arturo Bandini, Calvin S. Hartwell, John M. 
York, George H. Frost, S. F. Bangham and H. M. Stone. 

Every one of these had assigned to him his several duties 
in accordance with strict military usage; for the battalion's 
affairs were handled with military discipline. P. A. Collins 
was chosen as captain of Company A; C. W. Bell of Com- 
pany B, and Henry Ramel of Company C. A natty uniform 
of white duck, trimmed with yellow stripes and gold buttons, 
and leggins of yellow, made an effective appearance. Each 
private and non-commissioned officer carried a silk flag, 
about 12x18 inches in size, upon a pole tipped with a gilded 
spear head. The staff and commissioned officers carried 
regulation swords. "Cal." Hartwell headed the battalion 
as flag carrier, and his stalwart form loomed up when the 
boys paraded, like a grenadier of Napoleon's Guard. The 
club was drilled assiduously until almost perfect in its 
manoeuvres. Fancy drills and flag exercises were a striking- 
feature of these movements. When these 200 to 300 fine 
looking, well drilled young men marched, the effect was 
imposing and attracted wide attention. Demands from 
various Southern California cities came for the club, which 
were acceded to, and thus it made many trips during the 
period of its activity. This club continued in active existence 
during three presidential campaigns, a period of about ten 
years. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 411 

Horace M. Dobbins succeeded Stearns as president in the 
second campaign, and James Cambeil succeeded Bangham, 
when the latter was appointed Assistant Adjutant General 
of the state, in 1898, and in consequence removed to Sacra- 
mento where he died, in office, in 1912. Henry Ramel suc- 
ceeded Cambeil as major, and was such at the battalion's 
last exercises. One of the features of the club was the 
" staff, " which always endeavored to look fierce and impos- 
ing, but sometimes failed, because some of them had long 
legs while others had short ones, thus marring, somewhat, 
the martial effect! Nevertheless, the Americus Club will 
live long in the memories of both rank and file who con- 
tributed their little part in its activities. In many attics or 
dark closets, may yet be found the discarded uniforms, furled 
flags, or other paraphernalia, dusty and retired reminders of 
this once famous marching club. 

In sight, as I write, there hangs a rusted sword, which, 
upon numerous occasions, did foul execution upon the shins 
of its wearer, and of sundry companions in arms upon many 
a weary march. Happily, despite the uninvited intimacy, no 
sanguinary battles were engaged in, even if the occasion 
gave excuse for it. Brothers in arms, once again, I salute 
thee— A-M-E-R-I-C-U-S ! 

I cannot refrain from mention in connection with these 
events the importance of one attache — distinguished by his 
fidelity, his martial bearing, and his faithful attendance. I 
refer to the mascot of the organization, Will E. Chapin's 
Irish setter dog, Misery. Misery was duly invested with the 
battalion's colors, the regulation white and gold, and trotted 
along with the renowned staff upon every march, much to 
the delight of the battalion, and filled with exuberant pride! 
The club maintained headquarters and laid away its para- 
phernalia at the conclusion of each campaign, to duly reclaim 
them and rejuvenate them at the next one. After the second 
McKinley campaign its numbers decreased and interest 
dwindled. Efforts were renewed from time to time to 
revivify the club, but with little success. Members scattered 
and, in time, but memories remained of the once gallant corps 
and its oft hilarious charges upon inviting doughnut and 
pie counter. These and happy recollections of many a hard 
fought campaign and parade are all that now remain of the 
illustrious Americus Club. 



412 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Troop D — Colored 

During the McKinley campaign the colored boys entered 
into the spirit of it heartily, for, at that time, they were all 
good Eepnblicans. They organized a marching body of 
about fifty and equipped themselves with handsome uni- 
forms. They were well drilled and presented a good soldierly 
appearance in parade. Their captain was Tom Johnson, and 
lieutenant, James Ridley. As a fact, the colored voter of 
Pasadena is by large majority Republican in politics and 
practices. 

Still More Politics 

In the year 1898 Heman Dyer, though a Republican, was 
adopted by the "non-partisans." as they called themselves, 
though really ardently partisans on the yet rampant liquor 
question — and some other things. Heman wasn't looking 
for a godfather but did not care, so long as he wasn't com- 
pelled to eat crow. The Republicans being cheated of their 
own, brought out the popular Newton Bangham of Americus 
Club fame, and ran him against Dyer. It was a spirited 
contest, with Dyer's experience plus his popularity in his 
favor, and he won by just thirty-five majority in a vote of 
1783. The local "Citizens' Party" was organized by B. W. 
Hahn, J. H. Merriam, A. A. Chubb and Fred C. Wheeler. 
A ticket was presented for Council, but was not successful. 
Calvin Hartwell, George S. Patten and George H. Coffin 
were the "regular" candidates for Council. George H. 
Coffin was defeated by H. G. Reynolds — the only successful 
candidate on the opposition ticket for Council. John 
McDonald was elected City Treasurer, and W. S. Lacey was 
elected to the office of City Marshal over John R. Slater. 
Both Coffin and Slater contested this election before Judge 
Shaw but failed in their contest. Lacey was declared elected 
by thirteen votes and Reynolds by sixteen. It was in 1898 
that C. W. Bell made his first campaign. He, in that year, 
became a candidate for County Clerk against the incumbent, 
Thomas F. Newlin. Bell had been clerk of the county board 
of supervisors for several years, a position under Newlin, 
but resigned to make the contest. He was elected, after a 
spirited campaign, in which thousands of tiny bells played 
their tinkling part. There had been some protest against 
"bosses" which Bell took advantage of. John S. Cox and 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 413 




5* j 

I " 

31 

< cu 

9 1 



414 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

George Downing were local candidates for a county office 
at this time — Cox for Eecorder, and Downing for Sheriff. 
Both were eliminated before the convention met, at a pre- 
liminary caucus of the Pasadena delegates; they agreeing 
that but one candidate from Pasadena would be able to attain 
a place on the ticket, and upon a test vote Bell received the 
majority endorsement. The result was the occasion of much 
animosity between the Cox and Downing supporters and the 
Bell leaders, as the former claimed much outside strength 
which they hoped would prevail successfully, in convention 
But that was the day when the unit rule prevailed in delega- 
tions, to a large extent. 

The Waters Congress campaign, in 1898, was one of ease 
and comfort, of "Business man's talks" by the candidate, 
with the whole machinery of his party behind him. Even 
McLachlan, euchered out of a legitimate succession, joined 
the procession, and helped by his campaign addresses to 
elect his recent opponent. The Americus Club escorted 
Waters about, at times, and helped swell the chorus, for 
Waters was, personally, a popular gentleman. 

" Billy" Arthur, who had seceded from the McLachlan 
camp, was made manager of Waters' campaign and managed 
to make it an expensive one. Arthur died November 20th, 
1898, just after the election of his candidate. 

This was the gubernatorial year, too, with the popular 
Henry T. Gage as the Bepublican candidate. Gage was the 
South 's "Favorite Son" and as such he created much 
enthusiasm. Walter T. Melick, who had a little paper in the. 
jackrabbit belt — Antelope Valley — had been elected to the 
Assembly from that end of the bailiwick and now seek- 
ing wider fields, came into Pasadena and purchased an 
interest in The News. Walter was not yet much known to 
the fame that was to be his. Big and awkward, neither the 
glass of fashion nor the perfection of form, yet he was of 
the true stuff that compelled friends to grow fond of him, 
and better still — to believe in him. H. H. Rose was a can- 
didate against him in his campaign for a second nomination, 
as was also H. G. Weyse of Santa Monica, but Melick, with 
the able assistance of Rev. L. P. Crawford, won out. ; 

It may here be said that Melick attained a high place 
during his second term in the opinion of his associates and 
strengthened himself in the hearts of his home friends. His 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 415 

newspaper was just as frank and plain-spoken as was the 
man, and made itself an important factor in politics. Melick 
was appointed a member of the State Board of Examiners 
by Governor Pardee and died during his term, October 8th, 
1904, just on the threshold of a high political career. Gage 
won and Pasadena was remembered by the appointment of 
Newton Bangham as Assistant Adjutant General and James 
Clarke member of the Board of Trustees at Whittier State 
School, a position he honored for fourteen years. 

Captain Simpson, as a candidate for State Senator, had 
as his opponent this year one J. Noonan Phillips, a large and 
ponderous politician of the dead past. Phillips was a "silver 
Republican," with a Democratic nomination to travel on. 
But the ides of November removed him permanently from 
the political arena in Pasadena. Altogether, the year 1898 
was full of political action — state, county and local. Offices 
to be filled brought out a full line of candidates who kept 
their friends busy erecting nice little fences for them. 

In the local field there was a contest for township justice. 
Henry H. Klamroth, J. H. Merriam and John G. Rossiter 
were aspirants, each with sufficient backing to give him hope. 
Rossiter was earning his political spurs. Emerging from 
Metcalfe and McLachlan's law office, he took to politics like 
a gosling to the aqueous element. He would have won this 
nomination had it not been for the Lamanda Park delega- 
tion under guidance of Harley Newell, which cast its vote for 
Klamroth, who later was elected and filled the office con- 
tinuously until his death. General Lionel Sheldon, who had 
distinguished himself in the army during the civil war and 
in politics afterward, had been an ardent Republican, but 
was one of those Republicans who was lured into the free 
silver ranks. He had been rather overlooked in California 
by his own party, and took up with his new friends avidly. 

One of the spectacular occurrences of the county conven- 
tion that year was the passage of a resolution demanding a 
reduction in salaries of department heads of county offices 
— in the line of economy. " Father" Crawford of Pasadena 
was a notable member of the convention, his towering frame, 
striking figure and facial resemblance gaining him the 
appellation of "Bismarck." Crawford headed the Pasa- 
dena delegation and was insistent upon the salary resolu- 
tion, which passed with a whoop. It is historically correct, 



416 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

however, that after the election was over, and every safe 
candidate had passed the rnbicon, a pnrse was made np by 
the newly elected ones — who had so recently pledged them- 
selves favorably to this resolution — to send lobbying 
delegates to the capital to use their efforts to prevent this 
very happening — and in a measure succeeded ! 

That year Morris M. Estee was the Republican candidate 
for Governor against "Jim" Budd. On the occasion of a 
political "blow out," at which Estee was to deliver an 
address, every preparation was made for a rousing time. 
Estee was coming down from San Francisco per Southern 
Pacific. Word was received in Pasadena about noon, that 
an accident had happened to the train on the other side of 
the Mojave desert which would prevent Estee 's arrival. 
Martin H. Weight was president of the local Republican club 
and in despair called together his lieutenants for conference. 
James Clarke, and another, solved the difficulty by going into 
Los Angeles and hiring a special engine and one passenger 
car, in which they, together with two or three from Los 
Angeles, sped at a record speed to succor the gubernatorial 
candidate. That ride down the Soledad Canyon was one 
of thrills long to be remembered, but it got the candidate 
into Pasadena in time for a hasty dinner, a shoe shine, and 
a fine address. But Estee was never lucky in politics, and 
lost this election, the Prohibitionists making an assault on 
him at the eleventh hour, just because he lived in the "wine 
belt" (his home was in Napa) and owned a vineyard! It 
was in 1894 that the A. P. A.'s became, for a short time, 
political factors in California, and endeavored to mingle 
politics and religion, but this society did not last very long. 
A year or two later some candidates were making strenuous 
endeavors to disavow their connection with it. 

The campaign of 1896 developed some new oratorical 
figures who filled the horizon, large and potent for the next 
four years. One of these was Frank Davis, the especial pet 
of the Americus Club. Davis was an orator of fine abilities 
and of good stage presence, who delivered a convincing 
speech, always. Will A. Harris was another orator but of 
a different type. Being from Kentucky, he had the usual 
southern florid style of speech, and having at one time been 
a Democrat, was now — in his reform days — the more ardent 
exhorter. "Tom" Fitch, the "silver-tongued orator," was, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 417 

in his halcyon days, probably the most famous orator that 
the coast has produced since Colonel E. D. Baker, who 
perished in the Civil War. I remember him in one convention 
making the nominating speech in behalf of a candidate who 
was shy of an arm. Fitch pictured the occasion when the 
missing member was lost, depicting the candidate leading a 
bloody charge of his troops to a glorious victory — at the 
cost of that precious arm! No one could resist either Fitch's 
oratory or the emotions that such bravery induced. The 
candidate was nominated with scarce an opposing vote, and 
elected. Then it was discovered that he never was in the 
army at all! Tom had "put over" a good forensic trick, 
that was all. Both Davis and Harris have paid their debt 
to nature, but Fitch yet lives in Los Angeles, contributing 
interesting sketches to The Times, occasionally; a pic- 
turesque figure and the last link with a past generation of 
orators whose like we now seldom hear. 

Speaking of orators, I must not overlook some local 
Demostheneses who bloomed and flourished when the call was 
imperative — or seemed to be. McLachlan has been men- 
tioned in his place. There was J. A. Buchanan, a veteran of 
the Mexican War. an orator by nature, whose effectiveness 
lay in his earnest and logical argument and the fine dignity 
of his manner. I have always believed that Buchanan would 
have ranked high as a speaker had his early day training 
been directed into this channel. He was one of that little 
band which met in 1856 in Indiana and laid the foundation 
of the great Bepublican party in that state. Then there 
was Ed Locket of the little Douglass class — small but 
tumultuous! Coming from Texas where he throve when 
Bepublicans were not allowed loose without a body guard, 
he knew how to "get the hand" at any time he stood upon 
a platform. His was the old-fashioned rip and zip style, 
which sounded well in the open. "Jim" Bossiter was 
another Cicero of language who was something of a spell- 
binder when he got unlimbered. Magee, C. M. Simpson, 
Judge Gribbs and Billy Arthur were also often heard with 
admiration and pleasure. The Democrats seemed to be short 
of oratorical big guns, and generally imported their forensic 
talent from outside towns, when required. Of course, there 
was Joe Simons ! 



27 



418 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

President Harrison's Visit 

a banquet and its disasters what came of mingling champagne 

and colored gentlemen. pasadena entertains the head of 
the nation. how it was done. 

When Benjamin Harrison, then the President of the United 
States, came to Pasadena April 23d, 1891, it was qnite a 
distinction for Pasadena. For although President Hayes 
had once npon a time given Pasadena the honor of his brief 
presence, this time the President meant to make it a real 
visit, to stay over night! True to its reputation, Pasadena 
meant to do itself proud. In the words of the Maitre de 
Hotel Green, who was given charge of the banquet arrange- 
ments — " Don't worry, boys, I'll give 'em something that 
you'll not forget." He did! The affair was to be exclusive 
— $10, and a spike tailed coat being the evidences of affluence 
and standing that admitted the owners to sit in the presence 
of His Excellency, with the privilege of gazing upon him as 
he ate ! Of course, it was to be a champagne affair, that being 
deemed the arbiter elegantarium of an occasion such as this. 
True, there was gnashing of teeth by those who had not the 
price or other concomitants of the entree; and there were 
vigorous protests from teetotalers who were convinced that 
bubble water was outre and inappropriate. Nevertheless, 
the "political push" were ruthless and discourteous enough 
to say to these, "Out upon you, this is our affair!" The 
fatal day arrived — as say the novelists — and the dis- 
tinguished guests with it. There was the jolly "Jerry" Eusk, 
Secretary of Agriculture; there was John Wanamaker, P. M. 
General, and there was the son of his father, Eussell Harri- 
son — "Prince Eussell." There was Mrs. McKee, the 
President's daughter and mother of the immortal Baby 
McKee, together with some other ladies of less exalted 
station. Also, there was the Staff and newspaper boys 
galore. The banquet was held in the Green Hotel (east 
wing), and 200 guests struggled to look at home while toying 
with several kinds of table cutlery, heretofore unknown to 
some of them. Willis U. Masters was the affable and cour- 
teous toastmaster. But woe was in the air! The genial 
and jolly Maitre, somehow, lost control of the situation. The 
colored gentlemen who had been garnered from Los Angeles 
to serve as waiters — there was a score or more of them^- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 419 

got access to the champagne, and about the time when the 
second conrse was due, most of them were, as might be said, 
"hors d'oeuvres" and didn't know the difference between 
fish and pie! There was confusion in the kitchen trenches, 
and there were scrimmages in the pantry, and many guests 
never advanced beyond the fish. As for wine! The colored 
force confiscated most of it and left a trail of bottles from 
Pasadena to Los Angeles, as they wended their hilarious way 
hence. Perhaps, said some, all the better ! The wiser ones of 
the reception committee scented trouble early in the evening 
and endeavored to straighten out the difficulty. Whether the 
guests of the evening knew of the trouble was never known. 
It was this trouble which disturbed the welcoming orator 
and " mixed his notes,' ' but he managed artfully, notwith- 
standing. The Prohibitionists made much scandal over the 
affair, as might be expected. A reception to the general 
public took place after the banquet, when several thousand 
people shook the ennuied President's cold and reluctant 
hand. Next day a parade through the principal streets took 
place. To add to the gloom of the affair — it was "the morn- 
ing after" now — one of the densest fogs that ever greeted 
Pasadena settled down like a pall. A splendid arch of callas 
spanned Marengo Avenue where the pupils of the public 
schools, in charge of Superintendent Hamilton, lined that 
street and acclaimed the President as he passed by. 

The Coming of Roosevelt 

Later, another President gave his presence to Pasadena, 
and for the time loaned his own enthusiastic exuberance to 
the crowds who greeted him and bade him welcome. It was 
on May 8th, 1903, that "Teddy" Eoosevelt, in the course of a 
western tour, dropped in and gave a glad hand to our citizens. 
It was just after Mayor Vedder had been inducted into office, 
his first opportunity, in fact, to play the gracious host to 
any distinguished guest. Mayor Vedder and Congressman 
McLachlan welcomed the Honorable President at the Santa 
Fe depot and escorted him, accompanied by his secretary, 
George B. Cortelyou, through the town, together with other 
guests and some prominent citizens in carriages, to the 
Wilson School on Marengo Avenue. There the redoubtable 
Colonel and President, spoke with his usual vim to a large 
crowd. Afterwards, the procession moved through Colorado 



420 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Street to Orange Grove Avenue, where the President called 
upon the widow of the late President Garfield, who resided 
there. A short visit was made with this noted lady and a 
toast drank to her by the President. Then, after driving to 
Raymond Hill, the party was escorted to the President's pri- 
vate car — which had in the interim been transformed into a 
bower of beauty with Pasadena's celebrated roses. 

This ended a happy occasion for Pasadena. Roosevelt 
again visited Pasadena, after his return from Africa, in 
1913, and delivered an address upon his African experiences 
in a tent on the Maryland Hotel grounds. 

A Forensic Encounter 

Old timers will recall with much amusement a debate that 
took place in Williams Hall, between our own C. C. Brown 
and one Hopper of Antelope Valley, who I believe was a 
candidate on the Populist ticket, for something, or thought 
he was. Friend Hopper was fresh from the sagebrush and 
looked it, unshaven and unshorn. Who extended the 
challenge is not known, but the evening was fixed and the 
hall filled with men anticipating an oratorical carnival. 
While waiting for the principal event, a preliminary 
occurred not on the bills. Two mongrel dogs had found 
access to the hall, and not being pleased with each other's 
looks, engaged in mortal combat, occasioning much noise and 
confusion until they were finally dragged out, still in deadly 
clinch. When peace was restored and J. A. Buchanan, who 
was presiding officer of the evening, opened the meeting, the 
debate began. Just what the subject of the debate was, is 
immaterial, for it was not adhered to ; the orators discussing 
everything that happened to be thought of, from politics and 
parties to jackrabbits and subterranean waters. Hopper 
wore a collarless shirt and much worn "galluses" which now 
and then slipped off. He had much to say about his "wife 
and gals" and life's sweet dream amidst desert sands. 
Whenever a "hit" was made by either speaker, the audience 
yelled in hearty approval, with enthusiastic suggestions to 
the orator, applauding each whole-heartedly; for they were 
there for the fun of it. As we all know, Brown is no coward, 
and Hopper was no quitter. The affair lasted until both men 
were vocally exhausted, and the meeting adjourned to every- 
body's satisfaction, including its two principals. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 421 

How the Peess Killed a Governor 

When Governor Gage at the end of his term of office, 
1902, again announced his candidacy, he found opposed to 
him the three great newspapers of the state. The Call and 
Chronicle of San Francisco, and the Times of Los Angeles. 
Gage was mighty independent, and would accept no dictation 
even from a powerful newspaper; and it was said the 
proprietors of these papers endeavored to control certain 
policies and appointments, hence their opposition. At a 
banquet given by the Young Men's Republican League of 
Los Angeles, just prior to the meeting of the state convention, 
the Governor was guest of honor. On his right sat M. H. 
De Young, proprietor of the Chronicle, on his left General 
Otis of the Times. The fires of antagonism between Gage 
and the newspapers had not yet broken out but were 
smouldering hot, and ready. The five hundred guests at that 
banquet who were enthusiastic supporters of Gage listened 
with delight at the flaying Gage gave those newspapers. Every 
politician of experience who was present approved of the 
castigation but, knowing its effects, feared its results. The 
entente, just at a straining point, was sundered that night and 
the three newspapers began from that hour to plot the 
defeat of Gage at the Convention ; and they succceeded. 
At this convention it was that "Bob" Burdette, the much 
beloved humorist-preacher of Pasadena, made his political 
debut. He was a contributor of essays to the Times and a 
personal friend of General Otis. He deplored the contest 
upon Gage and would not personally attack him, but he did 
support the candidacy of "Tom" Flint of San Benito for 
the nomination for governor; and in convention made the 
nominating speech for Flint — not the happiest one, it may be 
said, that he had made in his career. Neither Flint nor Gage 
was nominated but George C. Pardee was, as a compromise. 
Walter S. Melick, then in the Assembly, had a "grouch" 
against Governor Gage, and, as it happened, was the only 
member of the Pasadena delegation who had favored Pardee, 
thereby securing Pardee's strong friendship after his elec- 
tion. It was at this convention that Ralph Skillen, popular 
and prominent in Pasadena politics, was tempted to "cast 
his hat in the ring" as a candidate, and it came about this 
way. "Jim" Kelly, an astute, practical and far-seeing 



422 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

politician from the North, was engaged in the cabal against 
Gage. He visited Pasadena and discovered that Ralph was 
popular and ambitious, and desiring to get control of the 
delegation here, quietly suggested to Ralph the desirability 
of becoming a candidate for the office of railroad commis- 
sioner. Kelly promised him certain influential backing. 
Ralph innocently fell for it, not perceiving Kelly's purpose. 
The result was that Skillen labored industriously in behalf 
of Tom Flint and secured the majority of delegates for him, 
which, according to the prevailing "unit rule," in effect 
controlled the delegation vote. The delegation, as a fact, 
later "fell down" on Flint, and supported Pardee, through 
Melick's influence and superior political acumen, for he was 
the only member of that delegation of babes in the wood, 
who "knew how" — this with no obnoxious meaning, how- 
ever. When the head of the ticket was chosen Ralph Skillen 
was quietly informed that his case had lost out and there 
was no chance for him. Ralph, dazed and uncomprehending, 
dropped out and went home cussing the cute politicians. 
But it was long before he discovered that he had been a mere 
tool in a crafty politician's hands. Ralph Skillen did not 
lose his popularity as a man, but as long as he lived looked 
with shy askance upon politicians who gripped him by the 
coat lapel and whispered in his ear seductive compliments 
and alluring promises. 

The Venice Convention and Its Consequences 

It was in 1902 that Benjamin W. Hahn first became a 
candidate for office. He believed himself fit for the State 
Senate, and with characteristic energy began a canvass for 
this nomination. Hahn had always been an extremely active 
laborer in the political vineyard, campaigning assiduously 
in behalf of the Republican party and generally getting 
accredited as a delegate to conventions of that party. Ben 
succeeded securing the nomination. His competitors at the 
primaries were Dr. Henry Sherry and Elmer I. Moody; one 
a popular physician who suddenly developed political ambi- 
tions, and the other an attorney then active in politics. Hahn 
made for himself a good record for attention to the duties 
of his office while in the Senate, but had, unfortunately, 
acquired some enemies at home who were not favorable to his 
renomination. At the convention held in Venice in the sum- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 423 

mer of 1906 the "regulars" were largely in control. Walter 
Parker, who was the conceded leader of that faction — the 
so-called "boss" — was holding the reins and making com- 
binations. His enemies — and all the losers were — charged 
that he was but the mouthpiece of the Southern Pacific rail- 
road. Knowing Parker pretty well, I feel called to remark 
here, that he rose to power because he possessed the faculty 
of leadership — a rare thing — and the ability to use it fairly, 
when he achieved it. He had that one quality without which 
no leader long survives — the ability to make no promise he 
couldn't keep, and to keep every promise he made. There 
was no guile in him, and when a foe he was an open one who 
showed no quarter while the combat waged. As there never 
was a successful party, or faction, without a "boss," Walter 
Parker was a successful leader — until the Santa Cruz and 
Venice conventions created a schism in the Republican ranks, 
which led to the elimination of the Southern Pacific from polit- 
ical influence, and the political obscuration of Parker. Return- 
ing to the Venice Convention and its important results : As 
was said, the Parker following was in the saddle. It eliminated 
Judge G. A. Gibbs of Pasadena, who failed of a nomination by 
a small margin, principally because of the lack of organizing 
astuteness of his manager. Gibbs had been appointed to 
the bench to fill a vacancy, and had served out his term with 
much dignity and credit, and was the logical nominee, there- 
fore entitled to a renomination. But Parker was not for 
him, and the axe fell. Calvin Hartwell, who had made a good 
County Recorder for four years, wanted to be continued as 
such, but it did not suit the "slate," so he was compelled 
to be content with a nomination for Assessor. For Super- 
visor, Captain Manning, incumbent, was listed to go, but 
was saved by the loyalty of the Pasadena delegation, which 
stood for him solidly against a Pomona candidate. Good 
management could have saved Gibbs and retained Manning 
also, but it was not in evidence just then. Halm received the 
nomination, despite opposition from his home delegation. 
The result of the defeat of the "independent" faction at 
Venice was a change in the political map of Los Angeles 
County, the forerunner of turbulence and party quarrels, 
which ever since have divided the Republican party of Cali- 
fornia into opposing factions. The nomination of Hart- 



424 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

well was not accepted by the Independents with favor, and 
that faction put Ben E. Ward, former Pasadenan, into the 
race against him. Charles W. Bell became the nominee of 
the same faction against Hahn. Hartwell was beaten by 
Ward, and Hahn was beaten by Bell. The campaign was 
waged with much bitterness and strife between the friends 
of these opponents, especially of Bell, who, himself being a 
delegate to the convention, was accused of violating the usual 
convention ethics. 

Yet Moke Politics — The Santa Cruz Convention 

THE RAILROAD IN POLITICS — ITS BEGINNING AND ITS ENDING. A CONVEN- 
TION WHERE BOSSES WERE ARROGANT AND A GOOD PARTY WHICH 
SUFFERED THE CONSEQUENCES. 

The Santa Cruz Convention, as had none other, accented 
the hand of the "boss" in politics. Abe RuefT, the Repub- 
lican political "boss" of San Francisco, cunning, crafty and 
able, had acquired for himself in his own city a notoriety 
and power as a "boss," which he mistook for reputation and 
leadership. Hence, when he came to the Santa Cruz Con- 
vention in August, 1906, he with his sixty-three delegates 
voting as a unit at his behest, believed he could dictate the 
nomination for governor. With Walter Parker virtually 
controlling the southern delegation, it was an easy matter 
to secure the nomination of James N. Gillette of Humboldt 
County, and representative in Congress, for the head of the 
ticket. There was no personal objection to Gillette, for he 
was an able man. The bosses then endeavored to go down 
the line, naming all other candidates. George C. Pardee — 
incumbent Governor — expected a renomination, and was 
naturally disappointed in failing to get it. That made 
Pardee a "reformer" at once, and he thereafter denounced, 
in his usual sulphurous way, the very powers that had 
previously been so useful to himself. It is the history of 
the political game. But the autocratic methods of the Santa 
Cruz Convention emphasized, as never before so clearly, the 
dominance of a few men who were said to be merely figure- 
heads of the Southern Pacific railroad, with its astute chief 
political dictator, Attorney W. F. Herrin. 

But there had been a reason why the Southern Pacific 
was in politics. This reason originated when, in the early 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 425 

history of the state, every cheap legislator and his associates 
in villainy believed it their bonnden duty and pleasure to 
"hold up" that corporation, by introducing some "cinch" 
measure before the legislature that would be a costly thing 
to the railroad if enacted into a law. That was the day of 
"cinch" laws, when the success of a member — and his 
popularity, too — was often measured by his ability to "hold 
up" a corporation and especially the powerful Southern 
Pacific. It was their way of replenishing the bank account. 

Many newspapers also shared in the spoils of this sys- 
tematic robbery. But the railroads and other corporations 
paid their pound of flesh because they had to or have their 
business affairs destroyed. I might, were I so disposed, tell 
a surprising story of "a railroad and a newspaper" that 
would be nearly unbelievable. The later day railroad "pass" 
was mere kindergarten to the systematic brigandage once 
practiced by the legislator and some newspapers of Cali- 
fornia. 

Well, the convention adjourned, the "independent" 
newspapers throughout the state grew indignant, then 
abusive. Lon F. Chapin of the Pasadena News was a 
delegate to the convention and he came home filled with 
wrath. He joined the chorus against Gillette and his 
associates on the ticket, although he did not directly support 
Gillette's opponent, Theodore Bell. Of course, I wish it 
understood that Chapin was animated by the best motives 
possible — nothing else. 

Gillette and the rest of his ticket won, despite the hue and 
cry, but the scars of that campaign have never yet been 
healed, and with its schisms began the movement that 
resulted in the formation of the Lincoln-Eoosevelt League 
which was to play such dominating part in California politics 
thereafter. 

Abe Eueff — smug and successful — became dishonored 
and soon afterwards a convicted briber, serving his term in 
the San Quentin Penitentiary-* Eueff served his term and 
is now termed a "reformer" of prisoners and prisons! 

So the Santa Cruz Convention and the Venice Convention, 
its forerunner, were the originators of the movement against 
the railroad in politics, resulting in the retirement of "rail- 

* This was in connection with the bribery of the supervisors of San 
Francisco in procuring franchises. 



426 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

road bosses" and the substitution of bosses of another kind, 
no less powerful. 

Frank P. Flint, U. S. Senator 

In 1904 California had to select a Senator and the South 
claimed the honor. Friends of James McLachlan, so long 
Representative from his district, believed him to be the 
logical candidate and moved — slowly — in his behalf. Fur- 
thermore, he himself was absent on duty in Washington and 
had not yet definitely decided upon his own course. When 
he finally came home he found the "props" were set for Flint 
and there was no chance for him. 

Frank Flint was personally popular and had extensive 
connections in a business, professional, and social way. He 
received the endorsement of county conventions and other 
political meetings everywhere in Southern California, and 
was eventually elected U. S. Senator by the Legislature. 
Flint served his six year term, and came home with, the 
realization like others before him — that the position might 
be an honorable one, but an unprofitable one financially — 
therefore he decided to stay at home and resume his legal 
practice. He also realized something else. The California 
Legislature had passed a direct primary law, which is one 
of the most expensive political burdens ever imposed upon 
aspirants for office. Theoretically right, in practice an obli- 
gation impossible for a poor man. No unknown aspirant, 
however capable, need unloose his ambitions now, unless 
backed by money and its congener, organization. 

Office seeking under its impositions is no poor man's 
game, as many have discovered, and good candidates retire 
appalled by the formidable expense account that confronts 
their aspirations. 

Hiram Johnson has succeeded because he has a perfect 
organization behind him, built up by years of industrious 
accretion, and with many jobholders to keep it in perfect 
solidarity. This is not said in a spirit of disparagement but 
as an undenied fact. 

John A. Goodrich had passed out of politics with the 
adjournment of the Assembly of 1904 and Dr. Gideon S. Case 
had succeeded him in 1906. Case, too, went down with the 
"bosses" and H. G. Cattell succeeded him in 1908. George 
P. Cary was the democratic sacrificial lamb against Cattell, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 427 

gallantly leading a forlorn hope — just for practice — he said. 
Well, he got the practice! 

H. H. Klamroth and Eobt. W. McDonald were elected 
township justices in 1906. Klamroth continued in office until 
his death, while McDonald is still holding down that judicial 
bench, solidly. McDonald has been twice a candidate at the 
primaries for a place as Superior Court judge — almost 
reaching his goal in 1916. Harley Newell and Captain W. 
C. Austin were successful candidates for county constable 
for several terms, Newell resigning in 1917 to become a can- 
didate for city commissioner, in which he was successful— - 
a well paid compliment to a conscientious and capable offi- 
cial. Austin relinquished official life for private business 
in 1914. 

The Eise of the Eefokmer 

the lincoln-roosevelt league and its sequence. evolution of 
hiram johnson, a new political apostle. 

It is not proper in this history to give much space to 
the story of the schism which divided the Republican 
party, gave prominence to some heretofore more or less 
obscure office seekers and patriots, and laid away on the 
upper shelf, the old time leaders who had fought in many 
campaigns for the Eepublican party in California. But a 
brief review will not be amiss. The " Progressive' ' or its 
precursor, the Anti-Southern Pacific movement, took form 
with the dissent from the dominance of alleged bosses at the 
Santa Cruz Convention. No doubt those "bosses" became 
arrogant and dictatorial. A convention is moved by leaders ; 
the more capable the leader the more easily can he control 
a convention. But if he is not as wise as a serpent his 
dominion is short lived, his failure certain. It was rather 
the methods of the Santa Cruz Convention, than the quality 
of its nominees, that brought about the split in its party's 
ranks. Abe RuefT and Eueffism, was an offense in the nostrils 
of a large number of Eepublicans everywhere, and upon Abe 
EuefT's candidates fell the odium of his methods. His suc- 
cesses in San Francisco, where he lived, made him careless 
and arrogant. The party that he allied himself with suffered 
from his allegiance, and thus the curse of Abe Eueff was 
charged against the Eepublican party. Notwithstanding his 
reputation I saw him get upon the platform of the Santa 



428 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Cruz Convention, and, with eloquent appeal, place in nomina- 
tion a good woman who aspired to high office, and, despite 
the fact that she was not the bosses' choice of that alleged 
boss-ruled convention, almost succeeded, by his specious 
oratory, in fetching about her nomination! If it was a 
bosses' convention it is a fact that at least one prominent 
state official, who is now a mouthpiece of the Progressive 
party, received his first nomination by that same convention 
and by the same methods that nominated the candidates for 
Governor and other offices. I refer to the honorable Attorney 
General for the state of California. When that convention 
adjourned, the disgruntled — those who honestly disagreed 
with the methods of it, and those whose friends had failed 
of success in securing a "bite of political pie," went home 
to begin their opposing agitation. From the opposition thus 
kindled there grew into concrete organization the " Lincoln- 
Roosevelt League" — borrowing the names and reputation of 
two phenomenally popular patriots — thus appealing to the 
popular imagination. It was fine political wisdom. 

By 1908 the movement against the Southern Pacific became 
definite, widespread and popular. To the general public the 
"S. P." symbolized all that was unfair and degenerate in 
politics, and therefore must be suppressed ; the railroad must 
be put out of politics and politics taken out of the railroad! 
And the Republican party was made to bear the onus of all 
political grievances. 

One Hiram Johnson 

"Are you for the S. P., or are you against it?" That 
was the query put to the Republican who chose to remain 
faithful to his party. There could be no answer to that 
interrogation because it had neither sense nor logic in it, 
but it was the rock upon which the good old party stranded 
and was disabled. The new slogan sounded alluring and 
stirred to action the disgruntled of both dominant parties. 
It was the time for the opportunist. Came then one Hiram 
Johnson, the pulchritudinous. Plucked from the mediocrity 
of an attorney's office by a badly aimed assassin's bullet 
intended for Francis J. Heney, Johnson emerged from semi- 
obscurity in San Francisco, to become the chief performer 
on the political horizon of California. Champion of the new 
political dogma, he rode upon the topmost wave of its popu- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 429 

larity to the gubernatorial chair at Sacramento, then to be the 
appendix of the Roosevelt presidential kite. Governor twice ; 
thence to the Senate chamber of the United States ! Truly a 
meteoric career within the scope of eight years. His political 
beginning will bear telling here. It was during the Abe Rueff 
trial for bribery. Francis J. Heney was assisting the district 
attorney in the prosecution. A badgered venireman whose 
dark past had been viciously and unnecessarily exposed by 
Heney, became frenzied and took a shot at him. The bullet 
fell a trifle short of its purpose and lodged in Heney 's jaw, 
temporarily disabling him. Hiram Johnson was employed as 
Honey's substitute. The opportunity was his, and he seized 
it with characteristic aptitude. The conviction of Rueff* was 
Johnson's triumph and RuefFs finish, politically. Thus 
Hiram Johnson became the popular hero of the progressive 
proletariat, the autocrat and dictator of the new party, and a 
"boss" with power such as has been bestowed upon no other 
one man in the Golden State. 

And thus do seemingly little things lead to tremendously 
important results. Yet to Hiram Johnson must be conceded 
high class ability as a political organizer, and a quality of 
leadership uncommon. As a speaker he holds his audiences 
to the minute, and as a debater he is unquestionably able. 
His future is in his own hands. Is the Senate the Tarpeian 
rock for him? 

The Lincoln-Roosevelt party evolutionized into the 
"Progressive' ' — Johnson's party — for it was largely that, 
in fact. Johnson became Governor in 1912, and with him 
came to Sacramento a legislature controlled by his willing 
vassals. His tremendous majority of 80,000 gave him great 
prestige, and his accession to the high seat at the Capital 
obtained for him unqualified allegiance. A political 
autocracy was established, which was composed entirely of 
his own proven supporters whom he dominated absolutely. 
A. J. Wallace, formerly of Pasadena, was elected as 
Lieutenant Governor — a capable lieutenant, who, even if he 
had desired it, was impotent to protest against the domina- 
tion of the new god. It was indeed a golden age for the 
"reformer." 

It is not in place to discuss the varying angles of 
the Johnson administration — its virtues or its faults. The 
extreme partisans, on his side, proclaim for him merits that 



430 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

lie does not possess; his antagonists some delinquencies that 
he is guiltless of. One thing is certain, the railroad in 
politics became past history, for which no doubt its manage- 
ment is as devoutly thankful as the voter. The progressive 
party may claim credit for that. Whether the state has been 
bettered — aside from this one fact — may easily be a matter 
of conjecture. For a certainty, the burden of taxes has been 
increased, and the number of beneficiaries who wax happy 
and affluent at the public crib, has become a small army. The 
state has undertaken — through many commissions — to 
manage business, public and personal. The rights of 
corporations and the principles of ownership have been 
interrogated, and placed under the control of commissioners. 
Time is analyzing these prerogatives and assaying their 
value. 

Chakles W. Bell — Congressman 

THE SUFFRAGISTS COME INTO THEIR OWN, AT LAST 

In this regenerative period Charles W. Bell, state senator, 
found his greater opportunity and shrewdly took advantage 
thereof. Bell was ambitious, and stood well in with the 
progressives of his district and by virtue of his official station 
at Sacramento. There came a time when circumstance aided 
his ambitions. The women of California, long pleading, 
for recognition, for the right to exercise the voting privilege, 
suddenly, with the advent of the new political conditions, 
arose in mighty acclaim and urged their rights. It was op- 
portune, for although Governor Johnson was not friendly 
to woman suffrage, the faction that gained for them their 
demands might well hope to retain their allegiance. So it 
well became a progressive member of the Legislature to 
father a bill to permit such amendment to the Constitution 
as would fit the case. Bell was the lucky member chosen, and 
Bell's Suffrage Amendment — as it became known — and 
which was afterward to become a law, gave its sponsor the 
popularity that earned him a nomination for Congress in 
1912. He secured the progressive nomination and defeated 
McLachlan, the republican nominee. 

McLachlan had been a useful member in Congress during 
his twelve years of service, and was now almost ranking mem- 
ber of the rivers and harbors committee, therefore destined in 
a few years to be chairman of that important committee. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 431 

During this period he had secured many large appropriations, 
notably those for San Pedro harbor, for the Los Angeles post- 
office and — still more important to his home city — an appro- 
priation of $250,000 for a postomce building — surely a monu- 
ment to his influence and enterprise. This in itself should 
have assured him a continuance at Washington. But it was 
an era of change, and the voter forgot his obligation. 

When Bell decided to become a candidate for representa- 
tive he resigned his position as state senator. W. J. Carr, 
who was then city attorney, succeeded Bell and was again 
elected in 1914, being now incumbent. Carr is a hard and 
conscientious worker. 

John Perry Wood, who made his debut by being appointed 
judge of the Police Court in Pasadena, had been appointed 
city attorney in 1907. Carr was his assistant then. Wood 
was elected superior judge in 1910, and again in 1916. When 
tendered the nomination for this office in 1910, at the time 
the progressive grabbag was being passed among the faithful, 
he accepted it reluctantly, preferring that of district attorney, 
for he was not confident of election to the bench. But it was 
a "progressive" year. Anyhow, Judge Wood is doing very 
well and can rectify a matrimonial entanglement with saga- 
cious celerity. 

Bell had the support of the entire progressive faction in 
his candidacy, and with it the prestige that came with the 
suffragists. It was no surprise therefore that he was elected 
representative. 

In 1914 he was again a candidate. But he had two oppo- 
nents this time, Charles H. Randall, who posed as a prohi- 
bitionist and a democrat also! For under that strange and 
extraordinary instrument, the direct primary law, an elector 
may seek office under as many aliases as he may care to claim, 
regardless of previous political alliances or predilections. 
Thus Randall, who heretofore posed as a republican, now 
sought the favor of democratic support, and, strange to say, 
received it ! He was a candidate, therefore, on both prohibi- 
tion and democratic tickets. What an amicable combination 
— bourbon and water! Frank C. Roberts, who was steering 
the News in turbid republican waters, also shied his chapeau 
into the political arena. But Frank was just one thing polit- 
ically — a good old-fashioned republican — with no hyphens or 
appendices to catch opportune political winds. Randall beat 



432 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

both his competitors. His vote was 28,024, Bell's 27,710, and 
Roberts ' 24,425. And this is a rock-ribbed republican strong- 
hold, the pride of the party! 

By this time — 1914— the schism in the G. 0. P. was enlarg- 
ing; in fact, it was seemingly beyond repair. Johnson had 
beaten his republican competitors at the primaries in 1909, 
thus becoming the candidate on the republican ticket. He 
was then elected by about 20,000 majority, largely from Los 
Angeles County — the hotbed of progressives. The Legisla- 
ture was controlled by them and their contempt for the old- 
line republicans was outspoken. In 1912 their dominance was 
complete, and they felt as if they were strong enough to walk 
alone! Governor Johnson, despite his autocratic methods, 
had grown in popularity. The original alleged purpose, of 
putting the Southern Pacific out of politics, had been accom- 
plished, and the progressives believed they had carried the 
right to dictate their own terms to their late republican asso- 
ciates and travel alone. They dropped the fetish party name 
they had used to conjure with, and both Lincoln and Roose- 
velt were relegated to the discard. It became the "Progres- 
sive" Party with a capital P. 

As a side issue Francis J. Heney, one-time ficlus achates 
of Hiram Johnson, thought fit, in 1914, to announce himself 
as progressive candidate for United States senator. Heney 
had been a great expounder of progressive doctrines and he 
had some reputation as a scrapper. But his candidacy did 
not suit Johnson and did not receive his support. It has even 
been charged that Johnson "swapped" that support to James 
D. Phelan, the democratic candidate, in return for like favors 
for himself, principally in San Francisco. No proof of this 
is obtainable now. But Heney lost — and does not speak to 
Johnson when they pass by ! 

Let us give Johnson his due. His arrogance was his 
strength, and his perspicacity has been a certain prophecy 
and kept his followers in leash, for man ever looks for a strong 
leadership. 

A. J. Wallace, consistently, should have succeeded himself 
as lieutenant governor, but he never attempted it. John B. 
Eshelman was the popular kite-tail. When Wallace 
announced himself as a candidate for United States senator 
in 1916 it was a "feeler." But a mysterious message shriv- 
eled his aspirations and he gave way to "influences." 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 433 

Came the great National Error — the climax of lamentable 
politics — and the urgent need of a strong man at the repub- 
lican political helm. 

Taft — President by choice of Friend Roosevelt — must 
again be the standard bearer. Roosevelt, with his unexam- 
pled popularity, and covetous for the seat of the mighty — each 
faction intolerant of the other. Johnson of California, still 
moving forward, now the appendix to the Roosevelt kite. 
History tells of that terrific contest and its results in Cali- 
fornia. The G. 0. P. old dogs faithful, barred by political 
trickery of their rights, could not even freely vote for their 
own party's nominee ! Resenting this injustice, many of them 
voted for Woodrow Wilson and split the California electoral 
ticket. 

In the campaign of 1912 the local republicans did little; 
there was no hope for them and they remained somewhat qui- 
escent. They had a club organization of which Judge George 
R. Davis was president. Davis had served with honor upon 
the Circuit Court bench in Arizona, having been appointed by 
President McKinley, and had been appointed to a vacancy 
upon the Superior bench in Los Angeles County by Governor 
Gage, but failed of nomination afterwards. But no particular 
campaign work was accomplished under then existing circum- 
stances. The old-fashioned republican wasn't recognized. 

The progressives had the floor that year in Pasadena. 
C. W. Rhodes was president of their club organization. Such 
men as Torrey Everett, F. S. Wallace, H. G. Cattell, Leo 
MacLaughlin, W. J. Carr and J. Perry Wood were the direc- 
tors of the campaign here. Many capable women joined them 
in this their maiden political campaign, notably Mrs. Theodore 
Coleman, who was appointed a member of the state central 
committee of her party; Mrs. Florence Collins Porter, Mrs. 
Torrey Everett, Mrs. Leo MacLaughlin ; in fact, the feminine 
fighting line was strongly progressive. 

The more conservative on both sides deplored the strife, 
but for the time being at least, there was no attempt at har- 
mony, nor desire for it by the leaders. The democrats formed 
an organization, such men as Dr. Malaby, Charles Grimes, 
Clark McLain and others got together, and J. Nelson Nevius 
was pitted against W. J. Carr as a candidate for the Senate. 
The democratic ranks had grown through the divergences in 
those of its opponents, and in 1912 it cut a respectable figure 
which has grown in proportions since. 



434 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The campaign of 1914 — a gubernatorial campaign — found 
Hiram Johnson again a candidate. Pitted against him was 
John D. Fredericks, then district attorney of Los Angeles, 
popular, able and well equipped with platform eloquence. The 
Pasadena regulars organized with E. F. Halm as their chair- 
man and manager. Harry B. Pitcher sought the privilege of 
going to Sacramento as a representative in the Assembly, but 
Howard J. Fish contested his right to those political waters, 
and successfully. Rupert B. Turnbull, who two years pre- 
viously had been the sacrificial iamb for that job, now, in 1914, 
became smitten with the idea of filching "Billy" Carr's toga. 
He hadn't a chance in the conditions prevailing, for the 
Appian Way led not to the capital for the dyed in the wool 
G-. 0. P.'s. But it is sometimes better to run and be licked 
than never to run at all — at least it is more expensive. Thus 
many good fellows may die distinguished as notable has-beens. 

John D. Fredericks couldn't, with all his popularity, stem 
the whelming tide of the Johnsonian Armageddon. He never 
had a fighting chance. 

Once Moee, Randall 

The congressional campaign of 1916 found Randall out for 
renomination. How to defeat him was the prayerful query 
of the old-line republicans. McLachlan was out of politics 
and devoting himself to a rehabilitation of his law practice. 

L. L. Lostetter, assemblyman from the Pomona bailiwick, 
became a candidate, and Edwin F. Halm was finally induced 
to enter the contest by his Pasadena friends. Halm had no 
hyphenate to his political cognomen, nor had Lostetter. It 
was to be, for them, a straight contest, and a republican 
nomination or none. Bell again decided to enter the fight — 
as a progressive. Randall assumed the ownership of the 
prohibitionist party by virtue of his "record" in Washing- 
ton, and that party accepted him as its apostle at his own 
valuation. The bloody conflict in Europe was not a circum- 
stance in its importance to prohibition — in the mind of Ran- 
dall — and his horoscope had only one vision. 

So Randall bid for a nomination as a prohibitionist, as a 
progressive, as a republican and as a democrat! And by 
virtue of the absurd primary law, he attained all of them! 
So here was a hybrid politician, one that neither conscientious 
republicans nor democrats could approve. Then it was 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 435 

that some of Bell's friends, and also some of his political 
enemies in the past, got together and made him an independ- 
ent candidate against Randall. There are circumstances when 
most radical partisans can eat crow with assumed Epicurean 
rapture ! But it was no use — the prohibitionists were power- 
ful, it was their day, and besides, having the "regular" place 
on the ballot, gave their candidate prestige. Randall was 
elected by about 30,000 majority — that was all! 

The Senatokial Campaign 
fish — thompson — johnson 

As had been foreseen, Governor Johnson became a candi- 
date for United States senator in 1916. His prestige had 
grown and it was almost certain that he could be elected to any 
office the state had to bestow. But Willis H. Booth had the 
courage to ask for a republican nomination and made a telling 
and a popular campaign. But Johnson won the place on the 
ticket by about 25,000 majority and became the republican- 
progressive candidate. Against him George Patton made a 
hopeless contest. Johnson won by the prodigious majority 
of 300,000 ! 

The republicans of Pasadena accepted Johnson with the 
best grace possible — making a virtue of necessity, even if 
with wry faces. A republican club organization had been 
effected in May, for the purpose of electing delegates to the 
republican national convention, with Harry Ticknor as its 
presiding officer. This organization had been maintained and 
its president, with other members, after the nomination, gen- 
erously offered their support to the ticket, tendering the olive 
branch to their quondam opponents. Co-operation in cam- 
paign work, a division of responsibilities and honors was the 
proposition. It was a "kiss and make up" program for the 
success of the whole republican ticket and a prophetic vision 
of an amalgamated party afterwards. 

But for some reason the flowering overtures withered on 
their journey, and were returned in a perishing condition. 
The factions continued to do business in their own separate 
ways. Such good republicans as Peter Orban, Captain Hal- 
sey, John McDonald, Richard McDowell and Ed Halm were 
willing to become vicarious sacrifices for the good of their 
party, but their sacrifice was scorned. What will the 
future be? 



436 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

One result of their failure to get together was the can- 
didacy of A. Bnrlingame Johnson for the Assembly. Howard 
Fish, the genial member, might have had an uncontested cam- 
paign in so far as the regulars were concerned, had the peace 
offerings been accepted. But Johnson decided to enter the 
race, and so did George H. Thompson as a prohibition can- 
didate. Johnson, formerly an experienced politician in Colo- 
rado, and later long time consular representative in China, 
was able to show his mettle now. The result was a surprise 
to both republicans and progressives, for Johnson was elected 
by a plurality of 1,400, Thompson running second. 




CHAPTER XLV 

Pasadena's Historic Fete — The Tournament of Eoses 

"And back of all I see the mountains loom, 
Wrapped in a purple veil — the dampless spume 
From that ethereal ocean's soundless deeps, 
That love the bosom of those battled steeps — 
On such a sea my fancy drifts away, 
And that is Pasadena's New Year's Bay." 




ASADENA'S Tournament of Eoses is the evolution 
of a poetic idea. That idea was born in the imagi- 
nation of a man who loved Pasadena; who loved 
its mountains, its valleys, its climate and its people. 
Especially did he browse in mental recreation 
amidst the richness and luxury bestowed upon us by the 
Goddess Flora — and fell victim to her Circes charms. That 
man was Professor Charles Frederick Holder, now passed 
to his newer sphere; and to him, his first coadjutor, Dr. 




FIRST TOURNAMENT OF ROSES, Jan. 1, 1890 
437 



438 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Francis F. Rowland, generously renders all the credit for 
the conception of the Tournament Idea. This idea was that 
in Pasadena, as nowhere in America, perhaps in the civilized 
world, could a fete or flower festival be produced — on New 
Year's Day — that could display in such luxuriance and profu- 
sion outdoor grown flowers — an unique, lavish and beautiful 
exhibition. 

Professor Holder, who was a writer and a traveler, had 
lived in European lands where fetes were held; but held in 
spring or summer when flowers were in full season. To show 
the world that, in Pasadena, flowers grow in the open in mid- 
winter, and in profusion too, and at the same time symbolize 
that fact by some special event that would be notable and 
unique, was the Holder idea. Thus it has come about, that 
for twenty-eight years Pasadena has held the Tournament of 
Roses, where has been drawn together thousands of delighted 
visitors to witness it, and advertise its fame everywhere. 
Professor Holder, who had with Dr. Francis Rowland, been 
largely instrumental in establishing the Valley Hunt Club, 
upon an opportune moment suggested his idea to his friend 
the Doctor, during a casual conversation. Dr. Rowland per- 
ceived its importance at once, and heartily approved it. The 
subject was broached to fellow members of the Valley Hunt 
Club, and steps were actively taken to carry out the plan 
through the aid of the club — the social center of its day, and 
still holding its high place. It thus happened that this club 
became sponsor for the first Tournament of Roses, held Jan- 
uary 1st, 1890. The members of the club set to work ener- 
getically, and when it is said that C. D. Daggett was a member, 
it need not be added that his services were conspicuous then, 
as they were later as president of the Tournament Association, 
in making this first tournament the success it proved to be. 
Credit should also be especially given to Messrs. B. Marshall 
Wotkyns, Robt. Vandevoort, Theodore Barnum (first presi- 
dent of the Valley Hunt Club), Dr. H. H. Sherk; also Mrs. 
W. IT. Masters, Mrs. B. M. Wotkyns, Mrs. F. F. Buell, Mrs. 
Sherk and Miss Greenleaf — in the first organization of the 
tournament. Don Arturo and Mrs. Bandini also gave valu- 
able assistance in arranging the outdoor sports upon that first 
occasion. 

There were no public floats, no entries from other towns 
and cities as now, and no public subscriptions asked for its 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



439 




CHARLES F. HOLDER 
Originator of Tournament of Roses 



production. Private carriages, bug- 
gies and other conveyances were 
decorated handsomely with fresh- 
plucked flowers from the gardens of 
their owners or friends ; and it was 
a cardinal principle, then as now, 
that no artificial flowers, shrubs or 
other imitations of nature, should 
be used in decorating. It was agreed 
that New Year's Day would be the 
most proper time for this display, 
the tourist season being then in its 
fullness, and such an event occur- 
ring upon the first day of the year — 
midwinter — would distinguish the 
floral display and its coincident rev- 
elries as unique and as something 
not attempted elsewhere in the 

world, thus challenging the wide attention since attained. Ef- 
forts to change this date since that time have always failed, 
and probably always will, for the reasons given. The parade 
of this first tournament took place in the morning, a custom 
which has also been maintained. But the afternoon sports of 
that first affair were many and simpler, for not then had foot- 
ball or chariot races been introduced; these came when need 
be, to stimulate the flagging interest, palled by ordinary ath- 
letic or humorous sports. No admission fee was charged, nor 
was any membership charged for the first two or three tourna- 
ments. The grounds where this first tournament was held was 
a five-acre lot, now known as Ford Place, mansions rising 
where this occurred. These grounds were used by the village 
baseball nine, and many fine games have been seen there, 
Decker, Lowman, Clapp, Newby and others of local fame here 
making astonishing records ! 

The success of the first tournament was notable. The 
display of splendidly bedecked equipages was a surprise and 
delight to all and wakened the public to great possibilities in 
the future. When another year had rolled around there was 
eager and increasing interest shown. This second affair was 
also arranged by the Valley Plunt Club. This was even greater 
and more inspiring than the first, but not yet had "floats" 
become the striking feature of it, decorated carriages and 



440 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

other vehicles entered by owners emulating each other in 
efforts at display. Beauty and novelty prevailed. On the 
second year the afternoon sports were held at Devil's Gate, 
where a wooded amphitheater was chosen to harmonize with 
the offerings brought hither. And this original plan of tour- 
nament was pursued for years, eight successive affairs being 
managed by the Valley Hunt Club, to whose members must 
be given the credit of maintaining this great celebration and 
perpetuating it until it became an established institution. 

As years went by, and Pasadena became the Mecca of 
tourists that it is, efforts were made to make the tournament 
more attractive and more resplendent. Floats picturing ideas 
of beauty, floats symbolic, epitomizing themes allegorical, or 
portraying historic episodes; these are the striking and 
entertaining features each year, demonstrating new and 
ingenious creations and exercising high artistic skill in their 
construction. These many entries are wrought in millions 
of roses and other floral blooms, ravished from a thousand 
gardens, and produce a symposium of imposing beauty that 
is a delight to the eye and imagination. The parade, growing 
from year to year, is sometimes two miles in length, containing 
more than a hundred floats. This long procession of blooming 
fragrance set in bowers of evergreen, cannot be fully appre- 
ciated from any description ; but the hundred thousand people 
who yearly gaze upon it give unqualified assent to its love- 
liness. After eight years of effort the Valley Hunt Club 
desired to be relieved from further responsibility. A demand 
for more spectacular sports, and the increased burdens that 
had been evolved, made a different arrangement desirable, 
hence a Tournament Association was organized and a corpo- 
ration formed in the year 1898. A membership was solicited, 
$3 being the fee charged at that time. Martin H. Weight was 
chosen as the first president of the association. The lands 
where the Tournament Park now is had been used since 1892, 
and were in 1898 fenced in, and a track laid out for horse 
races. An admission fee was then charged for the afternoon 
events. Successors to Weight are : H. E. Hertel, 1900 ; F. B. 
Wetherby, 1901; J. H. E. Wagner, 1902; Theodore Coleman, 
1903; C. D. Daggett, 1904-05. Under Daggett's administra- 
tion the chariot races were introduced. This chariot idea 
was originated by Daggett himself, and formed a spectacular 
success from its first introduction, drawing immense crowds 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 441 

and bringing financial prosperity to the association. These 
races were modeled on the old Eoman plan. Replicas of the 
Roman chariots, with their heavy wheels and low set body 
were especially constructed, and with four horses harnessed 
abreast, constituted the outfit. The driver was dressed as a 
Roman charioteer, in flowing toga of brilliant colors, a chaplet 
on his head. It required a strong and skilled arm to safely 
guide these mettlesome steeds around that course with one or 
two other contending teams careening alongside. It was a 
"Ben Hur" episode brought down to date. But no Roman 
populace was ever more interested or thrilled than this twen- 
tieth century multitude at Tournament Park in Pasadena on 
a New Year's Day. No serious accident has ever befallen 
these races, but a narrow escape was made by E. T. Off, 
at the time president of the association, who essayed to win 
fame by driving one of the chariots. A "foul" with his com- 
petitor upset his chariot, and he was carried from the grounds 
badly shaken. Never again did he essay this thrilling role ! 

An interesting innovation was added to the program in 
1906, when Miss Elsie Armitage was chosen queen of the 
tournament, and rode with her court of fair dames in a prop- 
erly decorated chariot in the parade, and sat upon an appro- 
priate throne surrounded by her court attendants at the park. 
This custom was followed for several successive years, Mrs. 
Elmer E. Woodbury honoring the pageant of 1907, and Miss 
May Sutton, the celebrated tennis champion (then a resident 
of Pasadena), in 1908. There was an interval of two years 
without a queen; then in 1911 a voting contest for a queen 
was inaugurated which resulted in choosing Miss Ruth Pal- 
mer. Miss Jean French followed in 1912, with another inno- 
vation when Harrison I. Drummond appeared as the right 
royal spouse of Queen French. And it need not be added 
that in his gorgeous habiliments he was every inch a king! 
Miss Mabel Seibert appeared as queen in 1913, with 
Dr. F. C. E. Mattison as her royal escort, an imposing per- 
sonage! Since that time the queens and kings have been in 
discard, awaiting the time — perhaps — when they are popular 
again. 

In 1908 the first football game was billed between the 
Michigan and University of California teams, in lieu of the 
chariot spectacle. This, too, was a popular idea, but was 
not repeated until 1916, when a contest between Brown Uni- 



442 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

versity and Washington (State) teams was played in a 
drizzling rain. Washington won handily. Again, in 1917, 
the University of Pennsylvania and Oregon University played, 
when, to the surprise of almost everyone, Oregon won by a 
score of 14 to 0. 

The successive presidents of the Tournament Association 
since those named were: E. D. N-eff, 1906; E. T. Off, 
1907; George P. Cary, 1908, 1909 and 1910; F. G. Hogan, 
1911; E. T. Off, 1912 and 1913; R. D. Davis, 1914; L. H. Tur- 
ner, 1915; D. M. Linnard, 1916; B. O. Kendall, 1917. 

Superlatives have been wasted upon the Tournament of 
Roses and its fame has spread throughout the country and 
even to European countries. Each year efforts have been 
made to have it exceed in proportions that of the preceding 
year. There have been years when nature interposed with a 
stern hand, and decreed an unexpected frost in advance of 
the noted day, thus diminishing the supply of flowers avail- 
able, but never yet succeeding in very seriously curtailing 
the result. A frost signal is the sign of multiplied activity 
and increased effort. An outsider would not be aware of 
the harrowing anxieties of the management for the few days 
prior to the fateful New Year's epoch. Only twice in twenty- 
eight years has rain proved a serious menace to a successful 
day, but never, indeed, did even this prevent its being carried 
out according to program in so far as the parade was con- 
cerned. 

The Tournament of Roses has become a regular gala event 
in Pasadena 's life, and is anticipated with pleasure and satis- 
faction each year. In 1915 the board of directors was 
enlarged to twenty-five, to be elected by the members, and 
holding office for two years. From this board an executive 
committee is selected by the president. In 1915 A. J. Berton- 
neau, long time efficient secretary of the Board of Trade, was 
selected as manager of the association, as it had become evi- 
dent that the duties were too onerous and exacting and 
demanded too much time to be imposed upon any one with 
other engagements. Bertonneau filled the bill with much 
satisfaction for the two years, resigning to accept a position 
with the Linnard chain of hotels. An able coadjutor of Man- 
ager Bertonneau was Mrs. R. C. Bartow, secretary of the 
organization for years, whose intimate knowledge and well 
known capacity made her of high value to the association. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



443 



Mrs. Bartow was chosen manager of the 1918 event. It is 
anticipated that the Tonrnament of Eoses will continue to 
gain fame as long as years roll around and the roses grow 
from which its chaplets are woven and its fame promoted. 

DlKECTOKS AND OfFICEKS 

The board of twenty-five directors, elected in 1915, were 
as follows: B. 0. Kendall, president; J. J. Mitchell, vice 
president; J. W. Wood, treasurer; B. C. Bartow, secretary; 
E. T. Off, H. M. Cole, Grant Orth, A. T. Welles, E. B. Braley, 
L. H. Turner, Henry Newby, W. H. Veclder, D. M. Linnard, 
D. W. Herlihy, W. F. Creller, A. L. Hamilton, W. L. Leish- 
man, W. S. Kienholtz, A. K. Bennett, H. G. Cattell, Edwin F. 
Hahn, M. H. Salisbury, Walter Baymond, George H. Frost, 
George A. Damon, David Blankenhorn. 

The same board continues at this time without change. 





CHAPTER XLVI 

Fraternal Societies and Aid Organizations 

ASADENA is well represented in fraternal and 
social organizations and in clubs. Some of them 
began with the earliest Pasadena life and have con- 
tinued ever since. 

It is impossible to give more than brief mention 
of them all, some of the earliest receiving a little more atten- 
tion because they were " pioneers'' in that kind of life, and 
therefore demand greater scope. 

Of society clubs and similar organizations no mention can 
be made. They are almost endless, and embrace clubs for 
social pleasures or for intellectual enjoyment in every phase 
of society, school and college life, meeting in private homes 
and in public halls. Literary life is especially well repre- 
sented in these, and culture goes hand in hand with ordinary 
affairs of life. 

The Independent Order of Good Templars 

Pasadena Lodge No. 173 

The first organized lodge of any kind in Pasadena, and one 
inspired by the strong sentiment prevailing with the people. 
It was at a meeting held in the Colony's first schoolhouse, 
which had been moved from Orange Grove Avenue to Colo- 
rado Street, February 24th, 1879, that this order was insti- 
tuted by California Grand Lodge Lecturer Leland. Looking 
over the roster it would seem that a large part of the adult 
colonists became members. 

The worthy chief templar then elected was P. G. Wooster. 
Its secretary, H. G. Bennett, and Mrs. Anna Mundell was 
chosen treasurer. 

"When the library building was built on Colorado Street in 
1883, the order moved to the upper room of that building, 
occupying it jointly with the A. 0. U. W., as had been pre- 
viously agreed. 

This has always been a sturdy organization and today has 
many members. Its officers are now: Chief templar, J. E. 

444 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 445 

May ; vice templar, Leila Standif ord ; superintendent of junior 
work, J. K. Galbraith; recording secretary, Florence Jeffs; 
superintendent education, Myrtle B. Shaw; registrar of 
attendance, George Montayne; marshal, Stella Schmuck; 
guard, Alfred Stockclale; sentinel, John Sanderson. 

Masonic Bodies 
Pasadena Lodge No. 272 

The first Masonic body of Pasadena was Pasadena Lodge 
No. 272, F. & A. M., which had its inception when a few 
Masons met February 20th, 1883, and planned for the insti- 
tution of a Masonic lodge. A meeting in the library hall 
followed, October 22d, 1883, when a lodge was duly organized 
and its newly elected officers invested with the powers and 
dignities of their various offices, as follows : C. B. Ripley, 
master; H. Ridgeway, senior warden; M. Rockefeller, junior 
warden. 

This lodge prospered, and in 1886 a hall was fitted up for 
it in a building where the Pasadena Trust Company now 
stands. Old-timers will recall the fanciful front put upon the 
upper story of this building, an unique conception of H. Ridge- 
way, then master of the lodge. 

There are three separate Masonic lodges now in Pasadena 
and fourteen affiliated bodies, as follows : 

Cokosta Lodge No. 324, F. & A. M. 

Received its dispensation December 21st, 1894, and char- 
ter October 15th, 1895. Its first warden was Dr. L. W. Frary. 

Its present officers are: W. M., Leonard 0. Bigham; 
S. W., Bert Stoddard; J. W., H. L. Giannetti; treasurer, 
George A. Daniels ; secretary, Norvel G. Felker. 

San Pasquale Lodge No. 452, F. & A. M. 

Received dispensation August 24th, 1914, and charter 
October 16th, 1914. Its first master was Alvin W. Viney. 

Its present officers are: W. M., John B. Dodge; S. W., 
Hiram W. Harmon; J. W., Arthur B. Cadman; treasurer, 
Joseph Storey; secretary, Harris P. Stephenson. 

Ckown Chaptee No. 72, R. A. M. 

Date of dispensation, November 7th, 1888. Date of char- 
ter, April 17th, 1889. 



446 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Officers: Charles F. Clendenen, H. P.; Edward McCaa, 
K. ; Edwin J. Goins, S. ; S. Washburn, treasurer; W. B. 
Edwards, secretary. 

Pasadena Commandery No. 31, K. T. 

Date of dispensation, July 1st, 1891. Date of charter, 
April 29th, 1892. 

Officers : Fred A. Grace, E. C. ; William F. Creller, G. ; 
Walter E. Gibbings, C. G. ; F. Ives Wallace, S. W. ; J. Herbert 
Hall, J. W. ; L. S. Parker, P. ; S. Washburn, treasurer ; John S. 
Mcholls, R. 

Temple Lodge of Perfection No. 7, A. & A. S. R. 

Chartered October 20th, 1897. Officers : Orrin H. Hayes, 
V. M. ; E. S. Crump, secretary. Stated meetings first Satur- 
day of each month. 

Temple Chapter, Knights of Rose Croix, No. 4 

Date of charter, October 20th, 1897. 

Officers : McD. Snowball, W. M. ; John H. Pearman, S. W. ; 
E. S. Crump, secretary. 

Temple Knights of Kadosh No. 4, A. & A. S. R. 

Date of charter, October 20th, 1897. 

Officers : Leo G. MacLaughlin, Com. ; E. J. Crump, 
recorder. 

Pasadena Consistory No. 4, A. & A. S. R. 

Date of charter, October 20th, 1899. 

Officers: William H. Vedder, M. of K; E. S. Crump, 
registrar. 

Pasadena Chapter No. 108, O. E. S. 

Date of dispensation, June 26th, 1890. Date of charter, 
October 20th, 1890. 

Officers : Maude Glenn, W. M. ; W. L. Leishman, W. P. ; 
Cora G. Gleason, secretary. 

Southland Chapter No. 307, O. E. S. 

Date of charter, October 17th, 1912. 

Officers (1917) : Jessie Davis White, W. M.; Charles W. 
Edwards, W. P. ; Daisy Alice Slater, secretary. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 447 

Golden Crown Court No. 2, 0. of Amaranth 

Date of charter, July 10th, 1896. 

Officers (1917): Augusta Anderson, W. M.; Frank C. 
Chapman, R. P.; Cora M. Clifford, honorary secretary. 

A Masonic Temple 

For several years the existing Masonic bodies met in 
separate headquarters, but in 1895 a room was fitted up for 
them on the third floor of the building on the southeast cor- 
ner of Colorado Street and Raymond Avenue, and there the 
different lodges met for ten years. 

In 1903 a Masonic Temple Association was formed, with 
W. H. Vedder as president ; C. J. Willet, vice president ; and 
H. A. Doty, secretary. Efforts to procure funds for building 
a temple were successful, and on October 5th, 1904, the corner- 
stone was laid of a three-story building on North Fair Oaks 
Avenue. This building has been arranged to meet the require- 
ments and here the various Masonic bodies meet on their 
designated evenings. In 1917 C. J. Willett, long a leading 
figure in Masonic circles, bequeathed at his death his large 
private library to the Masonic Temple Association, and it is 
appropriately cared for in a room fitted up for the purpose 
in the temple. He also gave a large sum of money to this 
association. 

Pasadena Lodge No. 324, I. 0. 0. F. 

Pasadena Lodge No. 324, 1. 0. 0. F., was instituted Decem- 
ber 30th, 1885. The first officers were : E. S. Frost, W. G. ; 
T. A. Smith, V. G. ; Frank M. Ward, secretary ; L. J. Mew- 
lands, treasurer; W. H. Darrow, warden; H. Haskins, con- 
ductor; J. Laspada, I. G. ; E. T. Dearth, 0. Gr. ; L. H. Bixby, 
R. S. N. G. ; Frank J. Smith, L. S. N. G. ; A. D. Lockhart, R. S. 
V. G. ; J. C. Fitzhenry, L. S. V. G. ; W. H. Brewer, R. S. S. ; 
J. E. Sullivan, L. S. S. 

The first place of meeting was in the Masonic Temple, 
northeast corner of Colorado Street and Fair Oaks Avenue, 
at that time called the Williams Hall. 

The present officers are : Gilbert A. Dunn, N. G. ; Emery 
Preston, V. G. ; Charles Ward, recording secretary ; Wallace 
Follet, financial secretary; W. G. Bryte, treasurer; Ed. Covey, 
warden ; George R. Seely, conductor ; F. G. S. Dunn, 0. G. ; 



448 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

J. D. Bugbee I. G. ; F. H. Ward, R. S. N. G. ; F. W. Beick, 
L. S. N. G. ; D. J. Barry, E. S. V. G. ; H. H. Page, L. S. V. G. ; 
R. Covey, R. S. S. ; E. Warf el, L. S. S. ; F. P. Griffith, chaplain. 
The present membership is 168. 

Pasadena Encampment No. 84, I. 0. 0. F. 

Was instituted May 29th, 1888. Its first officers were: 
W. H. Darrow, C. P. ; W. A. Burdick, S. W. ; J. S. Blick, scribe ; 
E. Canfield, treasurer; A. C. Stevens, H. P.; W. Jamison, 
guide; J. D. Jones, First W. ; C. H. Goodman, Second W. ; 
C. H. German, Third W. ; W. D. Jacobs, Fourth W. ; W. B. 
Parks, First G. of T. ; John Briener, Second G. of T. ; S. P. 
Swearingen, I. S. ; L. Soutlrworth, 0. S. 

Its present officers are: 0. Archie Nott, C. P.; F. H. 
Ward, H. P.; Fred Ash, S. W.; Charles Ward, recording 
scribe; F. F. Glezen, financial scribe; S. M. Cook, treasurer; 
W. W. Prestidge, J. W. ; F. J. Crocker, guide ; D. A. Maclean, 
First W. ; G. F. Krohn, Second W. ; J. W. Haney, Third W. ; 
S. F. Crowell, Fourth W.; F. J. S. Dunn, First G. of T.; 
George Knapp, Second G. of T. ; D. J. Bugbee, I. S. ; G. A. 
Dunn, 0. S. 

At the present time there are 165 members. 

The Odd Fellows Temple Association 

Was organized May, 1909, by the Odd Fellows for the pur- 
pose of procuring for themselves a suitable temple in which 
their various orders might find a permanent home. 

The result of this movement culminated August 11th, 1917, 
when a fine building, adjoining the Federal building, was dedi- 
cated with imposing ceremonies, and will soon be ready to 
house the various organizations of this order. 

The officers of the association are : Dr. S. P. Swearingen, 
president; T. G. Grabham, vice president; Charles Ward, 
secretary; Charles Knapp, treasurer. 

Pasadena Rebekah Lodge No. 121, I. 0. 0. F. 

Thirteen persons instituted this society August 4th, 1887, 
with the following officers: W. D. Read, N. G. ; Bertha D. 
Denel, V. G. ; Abbie E. Conover, secretary; Helen Green, 
treasurer; Carrie M. Willis, warden; Nellie M. Palmer, con- 
ductor. The present officers are: Melinda Blodgett, N. G. ; 
Effie Graves V. G. ; Minnie Dunn, secretary; Altha Preston, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 449 

financial secretary ; Florence Currie, treasurer ; Louisa Bryte, 
chaplain. Membership, 220. 

Crown City Lodge Nb. 395, I. 0. 0. F. 

Was instituted July, 1906. Its first noble grand was J. C. 
Hunter. (Other officers' names not furnished.) 

The present officers are: Noble grand, Walter Bayles; 
vice noble grand, W. W. Ogier; recording secretary, F. P. 
Ash ; financial secretary, F. F. Grlezen ; treasurer, George Bick- 
ley. This lodge has 200 members. 

Crown City Rebekahs No. 325 

Organized in May, 1910. Mrs. Cora Lancaster, noble 
grand; Mrs. Hj aimer Johnson, vice noble grand. It has a 
membership of 350. 

Pasadena Canton No. 37, Patkiakchs Militant 

(Uniform Rank) 

Organized in 1905. The present officers are: Captain, 
W. E. Harris; lieutenant, Edward Bird. It is the military 
arm of the order and an excellently drilled organization. Its 
present membership is sixty-five. 

Modern Woodmen of America 

Pasadena Camp No. 7242 

Was established September, 1900, and has now a member- 
ship of 520. Its first officers were: Consul, Heman Dyer; 
clerk, F. W. Healy ; banker, A. G. Heiss. 

Its present officers are: Consul, A. J. Wenger; clerk, 
Dr. A. P. Stocking ; banker, A. Gr. Heiss. 

Fraternal Brotherhood 

Instituted October 7th, 1897, with H. J. Foderingham presi- 
dent and August J. Joraschky secretary. Its present officers 
are: A. E. Benedict, president; Isabel Campbell, secretary; 
Kate Hopkins, treasurer. It has a membership of 149. 

Knights of Malta 

The Knights of Malta was instituted in Pasadena June 
19th, 1907, by the supreme organizer for Southern California, 
E. H. Warren. The first officers were: Sir knight com- 



450 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

mander, George A. Boden; generalissimo, Caleb M. Smith; 
recorder, Charles Ward. 

The present officers are: S. K. C, Stephen Sellers; G., 
John Campbell; R., Benjamin Bnndy. 

Young Men 's Christian Association 

The fine brick structure on North Marengo Avenue is the 
result of hard, continuous labor and conscientious purpose. 
Like all good enterprises, it has had its gloomy years and 
disappointments. But it has surmounted them and can now 
rejoice in its greater prosperity. Its origin was largely due 
to Rev. Frank J. Culver, an ardent lover of young men. 
David Galbraith, his friend, was no less so, and these two 
decided to do something for them in Pasadena; for at this 
time (1886) Pasadena offered no refuge for the young men 
who were deprived of home ties. 

A meeting of a few men was held and it was decided to 
form a Y. M. C. A. A larger meeting was called in Williams 
Hall, which was addressed by Rev. T. N. Lord, Rev. Mr. 
Culver and others. Then another meeting was held in the 
Methodist Church, September 27th, which was largely 
attended. The membership roll was presented here and freely 
signed and an organization completed with the following offi- 
cers : President, C. M. Parker ; vice president, 0. S. Picher ; 
second vice president, Dr. T. Nichols; recording secretary, 
T. J. Fleming; treasurer, M. D. Painter. F. J. Culver was 
chosen general secretary. Other directors chosen were 
George E. Meharry, J. W. Hugus, C. W. Abbott and D. Gal- 
braith. At this meeting Dr. Ezra Carr sent a communication 
offering to donate a lot at the corner of West Colorado Street 
and Vernon Avenue, the condition being that a building cost- 
ing not less than $10,000 should be built thereon, for the pur- 
poses of the association, not later than December 1st of that 
year (1886). 

The proposition was enthusiastically accepted with thanks 
to Dr. and Mrs. Carr. But after due consideration it was 
concluded that this location was not central enough, and also 
it was found impossible to raise the required money to put 
up the building by the time specified. C. M. Skillen and 
Samuel Stratton offered to give a lot on East Colorado Street, 
near Worcester — fifty feet frontage. This, too, was thought 
"too far out" for the purpose. It was the belief that young 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 451 

men must have convenient opportunity, to induce them ti enter 
the Y. M. C. A. portals. It was finally decided to buy a lot 
on South Fair Oaks Avenue and Valley Street — I believe 
$6,000 was the price agreed upon. Lots had advanced in 
value, speculation was rife in the town and the Y. M. C. A. had 
imbibed ambitions with the rest. A $40,000 building was 
designed and men subscribed with great liberality, for money 
was "easy" then. The foundations were laid, the corner- 
stone was placed — then came reaction, money failed to come 
as promised. The whole project fell apart and the lot was 
lost because payments upon it could not be met. One can, 
if interested, yet see the curbing of red sandstone that sup- 
ports a remodeled lodging house once the "Grand" Hotel — 
tenantless these many years. So the hearts of the proud 
projectors were for a time bowed down. Various officers 
came, served and retired. M. Myers became general secre- 
tary in 1877 and remained two years. George Taylor came 
also and endeavored to keep life in the association, and suc- 
ceeded in keeping it together. 

Years passed by, then there came a revivification. A new 
building befitting its purpose and in accordance with the new 
Pasadena spirit was demanded. This was in April, 1910. 
A campaign was waged for money and in six days $112,000 
was subscribed for a new home. The present building is a 
fine accomplishment of intense purpose, and with its lot and 
equipment has a value of upwards of $150,000 and fits well 
into the scenery of Pasadena. 

Its membership is now over 1,000. The present officers 
are: President, L. A. Boadway; vice president, Holloway I. 
Stuart ; recording secretary, A. L. Hamilton ; treasurer, W. N. 
Van Nuys ; general secretary, Edward Grace ; assistant secre- 
tary, M. B. Collins. 

Young Women's Christian Association 

The largest association in Pasadena in point of member- 
ship — but one. And none more useful or helpful to the women 
who need guidance, good cheer and kind words when they 
come as strangers in a strange land. The National associa- 
tion says: "The purpose of the Y. W. C. A. shall be to 
associate young women in personal loyalty to Jesus Christ, 
* * * to promote the growth in Christian character and 
service through physical, social, mental and spiritual training, 
etc." 



452 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

It has, therefore, a wide and useful field. The Pasadena 
Y. W. C. A. was organized in April, 1909, under direction 
of the territorial committee. Its impulse here came through 
discussion in a "business woman's league" which transferred 
its whole organization to the new purpose. Thus 500 enthu- 
siastic members were enrolled at once in the newer organiza- 
tion in 1909. Its first home was in a bungalow on South 
Marengo Avenue. But at once plans were made for a better 
one. 

Requests for subscriptions were responded to heartily and 
$22,972 given in quick time. Then, on June 10th, 1910, the 
property at 78 North Marengo Avenue was purchased for 
$15,000 and remodeled to fit its new purpose. A gymnasium 
and a tennis court were added, rooms provided for guests, 
etc., and its career began under fortuitous conditions. 

Mrs. F. S. Wallace was first president ; Mesdames McKit- 
rick, Goodridge and Smith, vice presidents ; Miss Fanny Bar- 
ber, recording secretary; Mrs. J. F. Force, corresponding 
secretary; Mrs. E. B. Carder, treasurer; and Miss Florence E. 
Culver, general secretary. 

Its work has been comprehensive in every way, home func- 
tions — cooking, sewing, dressmaking, etc. — being taught in 
classes. Gymnasium and tennis provide exercise and a fairly 
good library affords mental recreation. Its membership is 
now 1,200. The present officers are : Mrs. George R. Stewart, 
president; Mrs. David B. Gamble, vice president; Mrs. A. 
Howard Sadler, recording secretary; Mrs. E. S. McKitrick, 
corresponding secretary; Mrs. Elizabeth B. Carder, treasurer; 
Mrs. E. B. Allen, head of religious department; Mrs. L. A. 
Boadway, head of economic department ; Mrs. LeRoy D. Ely, 
head of social department; Mrs. Porter L. Parmele, head of 
educational department; Mrs. Lincoln Clark, head of girls' 
department ; Mrs. Frederick S. Fulton, Mrs. William R. Nash, 
Mrs. John Gimper, Mrs. H. W. Chynoweth, Mrs. Rufus S. 
Chase, Mrs. W. A. Bousach. 

Knights of Columbus 

Is composed of the energetic young men connected with 
St. Andrew's Parish. It was organized in June, 1907, with 
Charles James as grand knight; Connor Donnelly, deputy 
grand knight ; John L. Connor, secretary ; and W. L. Mouatt, 
treasurer. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 453 

It prospered and grew. It meets in its handsome head- 
quarters on the third floor of the Union National Bank Build- 
ing. Its present officers are: Michael J. Donovan, grand 
knight; Charles E. Lee, deputy grand knight; Thomas C. 
Laughlin, chancellor; R. L. Brand, financial secretary; Paul 
Konosky, warden; Paul Schaub, recording secretary; C. H. 
Wiltwater, treasurer ; W. P. Corrigan, lecturer. Its member- 
ship is 125. 

Ancient Order of Foresters 

Instituted September 4th, 1893. C. W. Buchanan was 
junior past chief ranger; H. W. Hines, chief ranger; Henry 
Newby, subchief ranger; G. B. Laughlin, treasurer; A. F. 
Fuller, financial secretary. 

This lodge disbanded about 1900. 

Independent Order of Foresters 
Court of Drown of the Valley No. 817 

This lodge was instituted June 1st, 1891, with the following 
officers : Chief ranger, Dr. S. P. Swearingen ; vice chief 
ranger, B. W. Pyatt ; recording secretary, A. S. Turbitt ; finan- 
cial secretary, Dr. J. S. Hodge ; treasurer, E. M. Cubb. 

The present officers are: A. L. Hadley, chief ranger; 
Clarence Ayers, vice chief ranger ; Mrs. D. A. Ward, recording 
secretary; W. M. Stone, treasurer; and Dr. S. P. Swearingen, 
financial secretary. Present membership, 147. 

Companion Court, Magnolia Circle, consolidated with 
above. 

Knights of Pythias 

Pasadena Lodge No. 38 

This is one of the earliest of Pasadena's fraternal associa- 
tions. The original lodge was instituted as Pasadena Lodge 
No. 132, September 18th, 1885, the first meeting being held 
in Masonic Hall. The following officers were then chosen 
and installed September 23d: J. Banbury, past chancellor; 
J. E. Clark, chancellor commander; E. E. Fordham, keeper of 
records. On January 1st, 1917, this lodge consolidated with 
Golden Star Lodge, which had become the second Knights of 
Pythias organization in Pasadena, under the designation of 
No. 38. 



454 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The present officers of the consolidated lodge are: Will 

Snudden, chancellor commander; Hall, vice chancellor 

commander; George C. Sanderson, master of finance; Al 
Vogan, keeper of records and seal; I. C. Damm, master of 
exchequer. Membership, 150. 

Unifokm Rank, K. of P., No. 32 

Was organized just after the Pasadena Lodge No. 132, and 
auxiliary to it. It is the drill branch of the organization and 
has thirty-one members at this time. Its officers are : Cap- 
tain, H. A. Murphy ; first lieutenant, Will S. Eobinson ; second 
lieutenant, George C. Sanderson; commissary sergeant, Per- 
ley S. Bassett. 

Pythian Sisteks 

This lodge, auxiliary to 132, was organized in 1886 as the 
Rathbone Sisters. Its present officers are: Mrs. Augusta 
Anderson, most excellent chief; Mrs. Bertha H. Reddy, mis- 
tress of records ; Mrs. Katy Bassett, 'senior ; Mrs. T. P. Hall, 
manager; Mrs. Constance Biby, mistress of finance. 



PASADENA RED CROSS 

Contrary to common belief, the present Red Cross Chapter, 
so notably successful in performing its patriotic "bit," was 
not the original Red Cross of Pasadena. The first meeting 
to organize a Red Cross association was held June 7th, 1898, 
during the Spanish- American War. This meeting was in the 
Stickney Memorial Building on Fair Oaks Avenue. At that 
meeting 150 women were present and showed by their enthu- 
siasm and afterwards their work that the cause was an appeal- 
ing one. At a later meeting Mrs. H. G. Reynolds was elected 
president; Mrs. Dr. Baldwin, vice president; Mrs. R. J. Rasey, 
secretary ; and Mrs. 0. L. Braddock, treasurer. The member- 
ship fee was $1. The records of that society show that regu- 
lar meetings were held and such women as Mrs. J. A. 
Buchanan, Mrs. Rasey, Mrs. M. Rosenbaum — who was later 
elected to the vice presidency — Mrs. Ida L. Jarvis, Miss Annie 
Bartlett, Mrs. Buddington and Miss McLaren participated 
actively. This organization continued its regular meetings 
until the end of 1899, when, the war having ended and its 
objects accomplished, it discontinued its meetings. The bal- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 455 

ance of the funds — about $100 — were donated to the San 
Francisco fire sufferers. 

Pasadena Chapter, Red Cross 

It was in 1914 that certain benevolently inclined persons 
believed that a practical application of Red Cross methods 
of dealing with emergencies would find a field in Pasadena 
for its services. In accordance with this view, fourteen inter- 
ested persons met November 14th of that year in Prof. A. B. 
Scherer's office and proceeded to form a Red Cross chapter. 
Dr. Robert Freeman, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, 
presided at this meeting, and Miss Alma Wrigley "took 
notes.' ' 

As a consequence of this meeting a petition was prepared 
and forwarded to the National council requesting a charter, 
which request was promptly complied with. 

November 21st another meeting was held and officers 
chosen as follows : President, R. R. Blacker ; vice president, 
T. P. Lukens; secretary, C. F. Holder; assistant secretary, 
Alma E. Wrigley; treasurer, J. H. Pearman. An invitation 
to the public for membership was responded to promptly, for 
the echoes of the European conflict was stirring hearts and 
minds to dire possibilities even then. It is worthy of record 
that the first member of the association was Mrs. Lucretia 
Garfield, widow of the former President of the United States. 
Mrs. Garfield has been a resident of Pasadena for many years. 

At first the society gave its attention — necessarily — to local 
work, giving much assistance in cases of need, in effective 
charity work. With the entrance of this country into the 
mighty conflict the need of enlarged operations was apparent 
and the officers of the chapter became active accordingly. The 
chapter had at this period about 1,500 members of all classes — 
active, associate or contributing — and had operating head- 
quarters on Colorado Street, where numerous ladies devoted 
their spare time in its service. 

Then it was decided that a membership " drive' ' be inau- 
gurated. J. C. Sloane was impressed into the duty of manag- 
ing this campaign, and under his direction committees were 
appointed, and it was determined to make a one day campaign 
wherein every home should be visited by volunteer campaign- 
ers. April 12th was chosen as the important day, and 
through the Star-News the campaign given wide publicity. 



456 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The city was divided into 100 divisions in which captains, 
duly chosen, became responsible for a complete canvass. 

The "drive" was a remarkable success, an epoch day was 
made. Seven thousand new members were added to the roll 
and over $9,000 in cash added to the treasury. 

General Sloane was congratulated on his marvelous cam- 
paign and its splendid results. Added to this came the Eed 
Cross pageant given by Miss Marjorie Driscoll and Gilmor 
Brown at Tournament Park, which drew a crowd of 10,000 
and added materially to the Red Cross fund. The story was 
written by Miss Driscoll and the staging done by Gilmor 
Brown, the talents of both being exhibited strongly in the 
whole performance. 

The impetus given to the chapter by the publicity and 
activities of the society, and the continued urgent demands 
upon it from National headquarters, have made it today a 
hive of industry. Its officers, who are volunteers in the patri- 
otic cause, devote much of their own time to the work. Head- 
quarters for the various branches of service have been secured 
in the old Throop College building on Chestnut Street. 
Besides the ordinary work of manufacturing supplies, lec- 
tures on first aid, nursing, etc., are given to classes, fitting 
the pupils for actual field or hospital duty. Since the organ- 
ization over 1,000,000 bandages and 25,000 garments of various 
kinds have been made either by volunteer workers or by 
women who are selected because of their dependent condition 
and who, in such case, are paid for their work. One hundred 
thousand dollars was expended during the past year by the 
chapter. 

The present officers are: President, W. H. Vedder; vice 
president, F. E. Wilcox; secretary, Alma E. Wrigley; treas- 
urer, J. H. Pearman. Its governing body is E. R. Blacker, 
Clarence Fleming, Henry Laws, Dr. C. D. Lockwood, Mrs. 
A. Moss Merwin, Mrs. R. R. Blacker, Mrs. W. S. McKay, 
Mrs. Van S. Merle-Smith, Mrs. H. Page Warden. Also an 
executive committee of forty-three. Its membership is now 
over 10,000. 

Red Cross Ambulance Corps No. 1, U. S. A. 

A striking outcome of the Red Cross work was the organ- 
ization of an ambulance corps which was effected by Dr. C. D. 
Lockwood, an ardent worker in the cause from its inception. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 457 

Through private subscriptions about $25,000 was raised 
and has been expended on the corps, and the necessary equip- 
ment purchased, which includes everything required for actual 
field service or on the battle line. Volunteers were called for 
and were prompt in responding. This corps has the distinc- 
tion of being listed as No. 1 in this branch of government 
service. 

One hundred and twenty-six members — a full quota — were 
enrolled and called into actual training in June, 1917, when 
they left Pasadena for the training camp at Allentown, Pa., 
preparatory for actual service " somewhere in France." 
Doubtless this fine body of young men will reflect honor upon 
the homes they have left for the call of their country. Dr. 
Lockwood has been already advanced from the rank of captain 
to that of major since leaving Pasadena, and is gaining honors 
of his own as well as popularity. 

The Navy League 

Another nation-wide patriotic organization now finding 
opportunities in plenty is the Navy League, which, while not 
"officially" recognized since the strained relations between 
its president and the secretary of the navy, is, nevertheless 
performing a large part in the humanitarian service that every 
home is called upon to perform. 

Until a secretary forgets his offended vanity, the offerings 
of the Navy League go through the Eed Cross, but reach their 
intended destination nevertheless and the thousands of arti- 
cles knitted by the members of the Navy League will doubtless 
bring comfort and pleasure to their wearers as they sail over 
the seas. 

The local league was formed in 1917 and has an indus- 
trious membership of 3,000 astonishingly busy ladies in con- 
tinual performance. When one sees the busy hands and 
lightning-swift knitting needle, in street cars, in the home 
and wherever woman may find herself, then is seen the ritual 
of the Navy League at work! Woolen yarn is donated to 
workers who may be unable to pay, but many others buy it. 
Alread thousands of pounds of yarn have been thus made 
into sweaters, wristlets and other useful articles for the 
absent boys in blue whose grateful prayers will no doubt be 
rendered up in return. 

Mrs. Myron F. Hunt is the capable president of the league, 



458 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Mrs. Anna Joss is secretary-treasurer, with headquarters at 
the Maryland Hotel. 

Chakity Okganization 

The city of Pasadena has always paid attention to its 
needy ones, for in spite of the reputation it has as a "mil- 
lionaire city," it has its poor also. There are practically no 
" slums" or "poor sections." Nevertheless there is demand 
for benevolence. At this time organized efforts are attending 
to this work, as has been elsewhere described under the head, 
"Welfare Bureau." But in the early history of the city — 
after it became a city — this work was done through an asso- 
ciation called the Charity Organization, which was the out- 
come of a meeting held June 28th, 1889. A few prominent 
men and women were present who considered the situation, 
and adjourned for a greater meeting at Williams Hall, August 
20th, when the following named were elected officers : Presi- 
dent, J. A. Buchanan ; vice president, A. F. M. Strong ; secre- 
tary, Isaac Springer ; treasurer, M. E. Wood. Members were 
solicited and active work begun. No other source of income 
except that secured by donations was had; therefore, it was 
the usual begging round which Pasadena has experienced to 
its fullness — and responded to as generously. 

J. A. Buchanan and his wife, Miss Annie Bartlett, Eev. 
E. L. Conger and W. IT. Masters were especially active in this 
work. This association conducted its charity and benevolent 
work for a number of years, when it became absorbed by the 
more widely distributed membership known as the "Asso- 
ciated Charities" and "Emergency League." These organ- 
izations absorbed other minor associations and engaged in 
systematic benevolences. Mrs. William F. Knight was the 
active and energetic president of the latter organization for 
many years. With the establishment of the Welfare Bureau 
it is expected that all charity and assistance work will devolve 
upon that organization, and thus concentrate it into better 
efficiency, or at least make it comprehensive and economical 
in its result. 



CHAPTER XLVII 

The Grand Army of the Republic 







VOLUNTEER OF '61 



HE bystander, on Memorial Day, 
watching the long line of Civil 
War veterans as it passes, will 
remark, if recalling past pa- 
rades, that a former familiar 
face or two of a year ago is absent ; that a 
once erect figure has become bent, and that 
his footsteps lag perceptibly from the bur- 
den of an added year. But the soldier eyes 
are yet bright, and sparkle as the sound of 
martial music comes floating in the morn- 
ing air. For this sound and these rhythmic 
footfalls recall events that stirred the soul 
to action a half century or more ago. Death 
has taken its toll and time has conferred its 
infirmities on these gray veterans. Their ranks are steadily 
growing thinner. 

Then, going up to Library Park, we see there the replica 
in enduring bronze of the very veteran that we saw a few 
minutes ago — as he appeared in the days of '61. Then he 
was a lad of eighteen or twenty, eager, with the red blood of 
life surging within him, and ready to lay down his life for his 
country. 

The boy of '61 heard with stirring pulses and ardent imagi- 
nation, the drum beat down at the village rallying place, and 
dropped the plough lines or jack plane, or left the counter at 
its thrill, and those that have survived the final "taps" may 
well look with pride upon this bronze figure and again feel 
the thrill that it recalls. 

It is a pleasure to know that many still survive those 
stormy days and are able to recall in contemplative memory 
their share in those historic events. The flag they fought 
for still waves free, and it still stands for certain principles 

459 



460 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

dear to the heart. The Star Spangled Banner brings surg- 
ing emotions and " John Brown's Body," retrospective enthu- 
siasm. 

John F. Godfrey Post No. 93, G. A. R. 

So the veteran, becoming contemplative as he grows 
older, is inspired to recall the memories and renew the com- 
radeship that grew firm and enduring on such battlefields as 
Chickamauga, of Antietam or of Gettysburg. Hence, in place 
of camp fires in the fields or forests, the lodge room found 
him, and in the Grand Army of the Republic the old ties are 
perpetuated which death only dissolves. 

Pasadena saw the organization of the G. A. R. begun 
when on November 3d, 1885, a meeting of a few veterans was 
held in Craig & Hubbard's grocery on South Fair Oaks Ave- 
nue. Present were J. D. Gilcrist, E. S. Frost, R. B. Hubbard, 
John McDonald, J. Ellis, W. H. Lordan, A. K. McQuilling, 
W. J. Barcus, A. Wakeley, Wesley Bunnell, Edson Turner, 
W. T. Knight, George A. Black, G. W. Barnhart. Only three 
of these survive. This was a "talk over" meeting; prelim- 
inaries were discussed and an adjournment had to November 
28th. This meeting was held in the Library Hall on Colorado 
Street and an organization perfected with the following offi- 
cers: J. D. Gilcrist, post commander; E. S. Frost, senior 
vice commander; A. K. McQuilling, junior vice commander; 
W. J. Barcus, chaplain ; J. Ellis, quartermaster ; C. C. Brown, 
officer of the day; G. A. Black, officer of the guard; W. Bun- 
nell, adjutant. The adopted motto was, "Fidelity, Charity, 
Loyalty." Besides these above named the charter members 
were F. J. Woodbury, W. H. Lordan, A. Wakeley, Milo J. 
Green, J. B. Hill, J. D. Youngclaus, Lyman Allen. The post 
was named in honor of Colonel John F. Godfrey, who had won 
promotion from the ranks, having joined the Second Maine 
Battery in 1861, coming out of the army a lieutenant colonel — 
being promoted in action. He had settled in Los Angeles and 
engaged in the practice of law, where he died, June 27th, 1885. 

The first memorial services in Pasadena were held in 
Williams Hall, Memorial Day, 1885. Although no post had 
been yet organized, a number of veterans were present and 
participated. A program was given under direction of Mrs. 
S. E. Merritt, the public librarian, and an address was deliv- 
ered by J. E. Clarke, editor of the Pasadena Union. Also 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 461 

reminiscences by H. N. Bust. No soldiers had yet been buried 
in Pasadena, so the decoration service was omitted. 

John F. Godfrey Post for a time met in the library build- 
ing on Colorado Street, later in a hall leased from E. S. Frost 
opposite the Southern Pacific Depot. 

This is the foster of the present officers (1917) : Com- 
mander, George K. Edmonds; senior vice commander, J. E. 
'Neal ; junior vice commander, Israel H. Smith ; quartermas- 
ter, F. D. Stevens ; adjutant, Charles R. Hilton ; surgeon, C. P. 
Buckner; chaplain, A. W. Smith; officer of the day, Robert 
Lyon; officer of the guard, S. J. Shaw; patriotic instructor, 
J. B. Albrook; sergeant major, Rufus B. Tucker; quarter- 
master sergeant, Wellington D. Stevens. 

The following are past commanders : J. D. Gilcrist, E. S. 
Frost, A. Wakeley, L. J. Crowell, W. B. Van Kirk, John 
McDonald, George T. Downing, W. J. Barcus, A. C. Drake, 
C. C. Brown, J. D. Gaylord, B. Jarvis, F. D. Stevens, W. M. 
Pennell, A. P. Huggins, H. H. Massey, Gideon S. Case, A. K. 
Nash, C. M. Simpson, J. E. Janes, C. P. Buckner, G. M. Bur- 
lingame, J. J. Shepard, R. Eason, J. H. Young, William S. 
Springer, M. N. Myrick, Silas Crowell, Jacob F. Force. Four- 
teen of this list of twenty-nine now lie in their last bivouac. 

The present enrollment is 275, and 129 have died since the 
organization of the post, the first death being that of S. W. 
Barnard, November 14th, 1906. 

One of the pleasing ceremonies of the many that have 
included the John Godfrey Post was the dedication of the 
bronze life size statue in Library Park — the volunteer boy of 
'61. This monument cost over $7,000 and was paid for by 
subscriptions raised among citizens of Pasadena. A commit- 
tee was formed composed of H. H. Markham, Gideon S. Case, 
Benjamin S. Jarvis, A. K. Nash, Will B. Smith, Frank P. 
Boynton of the post and W. H. Vedder, the only civilian, who 
was made treasurer for the fund. Afterwards, nnd for his 
active services in this behalf, the post decorated " Comrade" 
Vedder with a fine gold insignia of the order. It is too 
sacred an object for " Comrade" Vedder to wear, so he has 
it hung in a gold frame in his office. 

The monument in Library Park was dedicated Memorial 
Day, 1906, by imposing ceremonies and an interesting pro- 
gram. Dr. J. E. Janes was then commander and had charge 
of the services. The chief address was made by Comrade 



462 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 




PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 463 

Robert J. Burdette of the Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry, 
whose book, "The Drums of the Forty-seventh, ' ' has immor- 
talized that command. The monument was presented by 
Comrade McDonald, unveiled by John "Junior" (now follow- 
ing his father's footsteps by being in the service of his coun- 
try), and the benediction was impressively pronounced by 
Comrade Robert R. Meredith. 

This is an opportune moment, perhaps, to tell a story of 
a volunteer of '61 — just a boy like thousands and thousands 
more boys of that momentous time. 

But "Johnny" McDonald was something of a "kid" then, 
being just twelve years of age when he enlisted as a drummer 
boy. When less than thirteen he was a drum major ! 

At Gettysburg, when Longstreet was pressing his divisions 
in gray upon the resisting lines of Union troops, a brave man 
named Pickett, of the Confederate army, won fame enduring 
by his celebrated but impotent charges across a peach orchard 
and grain field. The wall of blue stood, sturdy and unbroken, 
against the glinting steel and saved the Union, perhaps, by 
its heroic defense that day. 

Young McDonald was only a drummer, and a drummer in 
battle belongs with the ambulance corps. But not he! At 
the first roar of battle he picked up a discarded musket and 
joined the fray. And that's how the day was saved! (Of 
course, John doesn't say so.) But look at this! Here is a 
picture, taken from the History of Gettysburg, a picture taken 
on the field on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of that 
bloody charge of July 30th, 1863. 

The central figure of the map is "Dan" Sickles, com- 
mander of a brigade then, and a hero of that day. When 
this picture was taken the old veteran had been carried by 
comrades in arms to the very spot where a cannon ball had, 
unkindly, removed a leg from him fifty years before, and there 
photographed him. Beside the gallant general stands the 
drummer boy of '61, now the gray-haired John McDonald. 

Another figure claims our attention, another brave Pasa- 
denan, too — none other than Comrade George Downing; for 
he, too, participated in that bloody fight and to him I owe this 
story — told years ago — for George Downing has answered the 
last roll call. 

In further interest with this picture which I regret I can- 
not reproduce may be noted the rest of the group — veterans, 



464 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

too — though they wore the gray then. Now they are "com- 
rades ' ' in loyalty to one flag and a united country, rehearsing 
the throbbing deeds of a great battle and forgetting the enmi- 
ties of the past. 

The Women Who Watched and Waited 

In 1861 woman had her place. It was the home, where she 
kept vigil while husband, father or son went forth to battle ; 
or betimes it was in the hospital or camp, where she tenderly 
cared for the ill or the wounded and soothed their ills and 
healed their wounds. The gallant men, returned from war, 
thought it fitting that woman should in times of peace organize 
its contingent as a proper auxiliary to the G. A. E. 

John F. Godfkey Woman's Relief Corps No. 43 

Organized on July 6th, 1887, with the following officers : 
President, Cynthia B. Clapp; senior vice president, Avelina 
J. Crowell; junior vice president, Eliza Van Kirk; secretary, 
Emma A. McCoy; treasurer, Minnie E. Williams; chaplain, 
Amelia G. Rice; conductor, Margaret El. Lincoln; guard, 
Charlotte Smith. For 1917 Mrs. Linine Horn is president 
and Mrs. Cynthia B. Clapp secretary. 

Company B, Seventh Regiment, N. G. C, Now Company I, 

IT. S. A. 

Company B, the Markham Guards, originally so called in 
honor of Governor Markham, having been organized during 
his campaign, and later on to become our present Company I 
of the United States Army, was organized December 23d, 1889, 
the company being mustered in with sixty-six members. 

Active in this organization were J. D. Gilcrist, James H. 
Cambell, W. L. Vail, B. W. Hahn, A. L. Hamilton and N. S. 
Bangham (afterward assistant adjutant general of Califor- 
nia). Lawrence Buckley was elected captain; first lieutenant, 
A. L. Hamilton (afterwards captain) ; second lieutenant, 
James H. Cambell. 

The company secured headquarters in the Morgan Block, 
and proceeded to drill and perform other duties according to 
the N. G. C. regulations. 

Through reorganization of the National Guard in South- 
ern California, the name was changed from Company B to 
Company I, and funds were provided for an armory, which 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



465 




was built on Union Street. 
When trouble occurred on the 
Mexican border in 1915, Com- 
pany I was sent there — its first 
active field service. 

Captain Byron Muzzy was 
in command, but the guard 
being made amenable to regu- 
lar army requirements, Cap- 
tain Muzzy failed to pass the 
required physical examination 
and the command returned in 
charge of First Lieutenant W. 
R. Jackson, having given most 
excellent account of itself. 
After returning from the bor- 
der, it was called to regular 
service and to prepare for duty 
on foreign soil in the great 
struggle with Germany and 
went into a training camp at 
Arcadia with other companies 
of the Seventh Regiment, 
where the boys received additional lessons in the military art. 

Pasadena will doubtless be satisfied with the record of 
Company I when peace again smiles upon the land and 
returns her gallant boys to us. C. F. Hutchins, who had been 
captain of the company, was advanced to the rank of colonel 
and when the Seventh Regiment was called to its colors in 
1917 he assumed charge of it and is now holding that distin- 
guished command. 

Pasadena in the Wokld Wak 

In other places has been related some of the things that 
Pasadena's citizens have done in behalf of the soldiers and 
sailors who were enlisted in the service of their country and 
in the various demands from stricken countries. 

These demands have been many and continuous, but have 
been met with quick and gracious generosity, much money 
being subscribed in various ways of usefulness. 

The first call for contributors to the first liberty loan — 
$2,000,000 being Pasadena's allotment — was oversubscribed 

30 



john Mcdonald 

A Drummer Boy at Gettysburg 



466 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

$800,000, and the second of $3,000,000 was likewise met by a 
response that exceeded this amount by $400,000. 

Aside of these financial features the contribution of Pasa- 
dena's sons has been a generous response to the nation's call. 
Company I of the National Guard gave to its country quota 
of sixty-five to the front. Then came the Ambulance Corps 
of 126, headed by Dr. C. D. Lockwood — now Major Lockwood, 
by virtue of promotion. 

The draft also took its share — 122 in all — of fine young 
men. The naval reserve and the officers' training camp and 
the aviation corps added many more. Up to this writing — 
November, 1917 — over 750 of the patriotic young blood of the 
city have answered the call, and are now either preparing in 
training camps or have already crossed the ocean to write 
their deeds with high held banners. How many more will yet 
be called is a matter for time to determine, but Pasadena is 
proud of its patriotic sons, and is confident that they will have 
written a glorious record on their escutcheon when the cruel 
war is ended and its performances summed up. 

Welfake Bueeau 

As a stride in the direction of civic usefulness, a departure 
from ordinary philanthropic work has been engaged in and 
has been placed in the hands of a Welfare Bureau, which con- 
sists of nine appointed members — non salaried — whose duties 
comprehend a vast deal of usefulness. Under its guidance 
the various social bodies of the city who have heretofore 
attended to demands of charity and benevolent work individ- 
ually meet in monthly conference and arrange a systematic 
administration of their charities under the direction of the 
bureau, which in turn is also under the co-operating hand of 
the county director of charities. As there are about fifty such 
associations, it can be seen that intelligent and mutual co-op- 
eration will be much more effective than is usually conducted. 

This bureau has a shop and store and employs through it 
the services of needy women who sew or do other kinds of 
needlework, which is then sold. Four thousand dollars was 
the amount received last year from this source and equaled 
its expenditures. Mrs. A. M. Luckey is in charge of the shop. 

Other work of a benevolent character tending to the 
improvement of the community is performed through sub- 
committees, for example, the employment bureau, which 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 467 

endeavors to secure employment for the unemployed. A "city 
mother' ' also busies herself attending to the demands of aban- 
doned children, correcting moral delinquencies, neglected or 
abused wives, and sometimes settling family disturbances! 
For even in Pasadena there may be occasion for interference 
between contending spouses. So if John inadvertently 
bestows a bang upon Mary Ann's optic, Mary Ann may call 
up the "city mother" and have John interviewed. The 
Bureau of Welfare expends about $7,000 to $8,000 yearly in 
its work. 

The food and dairy inspector, the health officer, the city 
veterinarian and the city physician all have their offices and 
functions to perform for the general good. Many of these 
intimate services, grown into action through the progress of 
paternal government, are in active practice in Pasadena, 
though many of their beneficiaries are unaware of them. 

The Salvation Army 

The army headquarters at West Colorado Street is an 
evidence of consistent and laborious enterprise. For this 
organization owns this property and conducts it as the army 
usually does — for the good of erring fellows. The Salvation 
Army was one of the early religious organizations of Pasa- 
dena's second epoch, being instituted at a meeting held April 
25th, 1884. Gospel Singer T. S. Ledford was the principal 
mover in this work then. The meetings were held in Williams 
Hall and were continued regularly for a time ; then an inter- 
mission. The public did not at that time appreciate the good 
work of the Salvation Army and their right to parade with a 
band was denied them on frivolous grounds. In spite of the 
Council's edict, the army persisted in parading with the drum 
and several arrests were made, but no conviction was had. 
Hoodlums, also, tried to break up meetings by throwing stones 
and rotten eggs into their hall. But the "army" valiantly 
continued their work, and in the end gained the support of 
prominent people, who began to realize that this was no gath- 
ering of irresponsible persons, but a real organized religious 
body, with a fine purpose in view. No one scoffs now at the 
Salvation Army and its unpretending charities, but pays to it 
the respect it deserves. 



468 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Christian Endeavor 
Humane Society 

No longer does vagrant Towser or old dog Tray wander 
forlorn and uncared for np qniet alleys or down back streets 
to avoid the militant boy. The cow with the crumpled horn, 
the motherless or childless feline, may rest assured that a 
humanitarian eye is seeking it. It may be the chloroform 
finish for him, bnt that is better than starvation, neglect and 
cruel abuse — to dog or man! As long ago as 1894 an asso- 
ciation of benevolent men organized the Pasadena Humane 
Society, then an auxiliary to the parent association of Los 
Angeles, but now standing upon its own feet squarely. 

The organization was perfected in the office of Dr. F. F. 
Rowland, who was its first president. Such prominent citi- 
zens as Mr. and Mrs. William Stanton, B. W. Hahn, Dr. Ward 
Eowland, Dr. G-. Roscoe Thomas and wife were active mem- 
bers. Its duties were not confined to belated felines or neg- 
lected canines, but included neglected and abused children as 
well. Its existence has continued and was much furthered by 
the good work of Dr. E. L. Conger and Lloyd Macy, president 
and secretary respectively for many years. A home for stray, 
homeless dogs and cats is at present located on South Ray- 
mond Avenue, where humanity protects these unfortunates. 
The broader humanitarian enterprise has been equally effect- 
ive in looking after children who need such protection as is 
given. The society is partly supported through membership 
and partly by city funds derived from fines imposed on claimed 
animals. 

Mrs. Robert A. Gifford is now president and H. H. Hallett 
secretary. 

Parent Teachers Association 

In the very early days of Pasadena the kerosene lamp was 
the Old Reliable. When there was to be a public gathering 
of people there must also be a gathering of lamps to light 
them in their endeavors. Sometimes there were not enough 
lamps in the hall or place of gathering, then the kind neighbor 
was drafted upon to aid in the good cause. All of which 
preface is to explain that this is the manner in which neigh- 
bors came to the rescue when a Parent Teachers Association — 
known then only as a neighbors meetings — or formally, the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 469 

"Home and School League" started its useful career. Then, 
the neighbors, having set down their lamps — just like the 
vestal virgins might have done — proceeded with the business 
in hand. There was also an intermingling of refreshments — 
coffee and tea — also brought from the kind neighbors' 
kitchens. These circles were the forerunners of the present 
day P. T. A., a vastly influential body of parents, indeed! 
The very first meeting of the kind alluded to was held in the 
Washington School in 1898, when sixty-seven mothers, two 
lonesome fathers, and eight teachers, organized themselves 
into a working body, with William Ryan as first president; 
Miss S. D. P. Randolph was an officer, also vice president, I 
believe. While this is claimed to be the first officially organ- 
ized league, prelude to the P. T. A., parents in other sections 
of the city had met in their neighborhood schools and discussed 
matters pertaining to schools and the pupils thereof; Grant 
School being the rendezvous, even earlier than the Washing- 
ton, as was also Garfield, for such meetings. But neither of 
these gatherings organized formally, but just met informally, 
and talked over things, read papers, etc. At the Garfield 
circle a paper was issued monthly — called "the Budget" — 
which contained gems of genius contributed by capable pens. 
Mrs. E. B. Allen was editor of this paper. About 1900 these 
various circles organized as a federation, unifying their forces 
into one body and becoming the "Parent Teachers Associa- 
tion," as it is now constituted. This Association has proved 
itself a vital body in school affairs and everything pertaining 
to school existence. Its scope is even broader than school life, 
and includes anything pertaining to the welfare of school 
children, in school and at home. It is certain that these 
associations have brought about a better relationship between 
parents and teachers. The Pasadena federation embraces 
eighteen separate organizations, in its various districts. 

Its present officers are Mrs. E. L. Janes, vice president, 
acting president owing to the resignation of Mrs. Dane when 
she was elected a member of the school board. Its secretary 
is Mrs. J. N. Probasco, and historian Mrs. G. A. Daniels. 

The Civic League 

The Civic League was originated in 1911 by some active 
minded women who believed they had civic duties confronting 
them and which they earnestly desired to perform. A meeting 



470 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

was held at the Hotel Maryland and an organization perfected 
with Mrs. R. J. Burdette as president, which position she 
retained for three years. Mrs. Leo MacLaughlin was first 
secretary. Luncheons were held and topics bearing npon mat- 
ters of public welfare considered. The efforts of the organi- 
zation, directed in whichever way these meetings determined, 
were important factors in their accomplishment. 

The League has 200 members and is officered as follows : 
President, Mrs. Clara Bryant Heywood; Secretary, Mrs. 
Theodore Coleman. 

Pasadena Children's Training Society 

Was organized in April, 1903, when Mrs. F. F. Rowland 
invited some ladies to meet at her home to consider a plan 
for the care of homeless children. The result of this meeting 
was an incorporated society bearing date of June, 1903, with 
the above name, whose officers were: President, Mrs. F. F. 
Rowland; Vice President, Mrs. Helen E. Bandini; Secretary, 
Mrs. J. H. Woodworth. Other ladies actively engaged in the 
work were Mesdames Holder, Macy, Dobbins, and Walkeley. 
On November 4th of that year the school was formally opened, 
a cottage being rented for the purpose. Since then the 
premises on South Wilson Avenue have been purchased and 
a good administration building, together with several bunga- 
lows, carry on this most excellent benevolence. About seventy- 
five children are at present being taken care of. 

The present officers are: President, Mrs. J. H. Henry; 
Vice President, Mrs. J. B. Durand; Secretary, Mrs. Ewart 
Adams; Treasurer, Miss Ranney. Mesdames Linnard, Mas- 
ters, Austin, Macy and Rowland, with the officers named, con- 
stitute the Board of Directors. 




CHAPTER XLVIII 

Clubs — The Pickwick Club 

HE original men's club of Pasadena is now only a 
memory. Organized in 1886 for athletic and social 
purposes, it continued throughout its fifteen years of 
life in a more or less happy state of existence. Its 
organizers were W. L. Vail, J. M. Shawhan, W. J. 
Craig, C. W. Bell, F. J. Polley and B. W. Bates. It first met 
in Williams Hall, then in Central Schoolhouse. Later it had 
a fine suite of rooms in the Webster — later Green Hotel; 
then on North Fair Oaks Avenue; again in the Brockway 
Block on East Colorado Street. B. W. Bates was its first 
president, and Shawhan, secretary. 

It has long since passed out of existence and most of its 
members scattered. An athletic " annex" to the club was the 
Pasadena Athletic Club — whose chief actors were H. R. 
Hertel, C. W. Bell, and other near professional disciples of 
manly arts. This club featured numerous athletic contests 
and field days, wherein local talent found vent — and prodi- 
gious were the performances ! 

The club ceased to be about 1900. It was through this 
club's efforts that the race track in North Pasadena was 
constructed and it was there that many contests took place. 

The Ovekland Club 

The call of the Club ! That was the urgency that fostered 
the movement which led to the organization of the Overland 
Club. 

The Pickwick Club had ceased to be, and for long had no 
successor. Business men, professional men and diletanttes 
with money, especially, found no surcease from petty cares 
or opportunities for friendly meeting with each other on 
a common plane — such as club life may offer. The winter 
visitor who was accustomed to this life as part of his daily 
existence, found a hiatus here which unsettled him. This was 
the sentiment that moved such men as Frank V. Rider, W. H. 

471 



472 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Vedder, Dr. Hibbard, Henry Newby, and some others of like 
mind, to take np the question of a new club and seriously 
discuss it. Frank Rider got into action and when friends 
visited him, perorated on the uppermost topic. Then D. M. 
Linnard, with his usual hospitable intent, had these men, and 
others, at his board to seriously undertake the project. 

This was preliminary to an active campaign. More meet- 
ings, more gustatory stimulus to enlarged plans, and there 
was evolved a formal organization, perfected in Eider's office 
when W. H. Vedder was chosen as president; Dr. Hibbard, 
vice president; J. S. Glasscock, secretary; and F. V. Rider, 
treasurer. A committee on by-laws was also appointed. 

It was at first decided to secure the upper floor of the 
Stanton Building for club purposes. Each person present 
became active in canvassing for membership to the proposed 
club, and with success. It was named "The Overland" after 
a debate upon various suggested appellations. The date of 
organization was June 21st, 1904. 

A former private residence on the southeast corner of 
Colorado Street and Los Robles Avenue was leased and fitted 
up suitably for its chosen uses and here the club began its 
popular and prosperous career. 

After a period of three years the property at 44 South 
Euclid Avenue was purchased and fitted up properly. Later, 
it was enlarged as needed and now comprises a very satisfac- 
tory home for its purpose. 

The Overland Club has fulfilled its destined life in Club- 
dom. Here the member meets his friends and brings his 
guests to dally in agreeable relationship. Here have many 
distinguished guests met and exchanged experiences and even 
entertained the club with addresses. 

Besides being a club for social inter-communication, it has 
asserted itself as a booster for all commendable civic and 
patriotic affairs, and is sponsor as well for many benevolences, 
for its members first of all are patriotic. Each Christmas 
it has become the distributor of benefactions to many needy 
families and has thus incurred the good will of hundreds of 
homes. 

Dr. F. C. E. Mattison succeeded Vedder as president after 
the first year, and continued the popular president until 1916, 
when Col. W. J. Hogan succeeded him — a no less popular 
choice. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 473 

Secretary and Manager Bryson Allen and Chef George 
Johnson are always on deck — capable and affable in their 
attentions. 

The membership is 225 and embraces the best in Pasa- 
dena's professional and business circles. 

Valley Hunt Club 

From its very beginning, in 1888, this club has led in the 
social activities of Pasadena. Never ostentatious or preten- 
tious, its functions have called together the very best of the 
city's social life and people. 

It was organized November 3rd, 1888, with the following 
officers: President, T. B. Barnum; Vice President, C. F. 
Holder; Secretary, B. M. Wotkyns; Treasurer, F. F. Buell; 
Masters of Hounds, Dr. H. N. Hall, W. Browning, Eobert 
Vandevort, Conway Campbell-Johnson. 

Aside of its social functions, its object was to hunt with 
horse and hounds, and many notable events of this kind were 
indulged in and many wild cats or jack rabbits made to "bite 
the dust." C. F. Holder, and later Dr. F. F. Rowland, distin- 
guished themselves in this direction. 

The original club house was on Colorado Court, but after 
a few years there the club purchased a lot on South Orange 
Grove Avenue and built thereon a fine club house costing 
$20,000, which it continues to occupy. The present officers 
are: President, J. E. Jardine; Secretary, F. B. Carter, Jr.; 
and Treasurer, W. D. Lacey. 

Golf — The Annandale Club 

The golf enthusiast has many opportunities in Pasadena, 
there being no less than five high class links within easy reach 
of the city, two of them at least, within walking distance for 
the man or woman who believes in this sort of exercise. The 
Annandale is the most prominent of these, being but half a 
mile from the Colorado Street bridge and now within the city 
limits. 

This club was originally organized largely through the 
activities of Colin Stuart and James Cambell. The land 
was secured from the Campbell-Johnson estate and a fine club 



474 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

house built in 1907. Stuart was first president and Cambell 
secretary-treasurer. 

In 1917 the original property was sold, other lands adjoin- 
ing purchased and a new and more pretentious club house 
built at a more convenient location to the links. 

The present officers are W. J. McDonald, President ; Frank 
P. Flint, Vice President ; H. I. Stuart, Secretary-Treasurer. 

The Raymond 

Both the Huntington and the Raymond sport their own 
golf links and each have fine ones. The Huntington uses the 
historic "old mill" as its club house, having adapted it to this 
purpose. The Raymond grounds are a continuation of the 
hotel grounds. It was devised especially for guests of the 
hotel, but does not exclude outsiders. 

The Mid wick 

The Midwick Club, while not being located in Pasadena, is 
nevertheless well represented in its membership by Pasade- 
nans. It is located south of Alhambra and was originally the 
San Gabriel Country Club. It has large grounds and a splen- 
did club house building where society gathers in numbers. 

Altadena Countky Club 

This club was organized in 1907, its organizers being some 
residents of Altadena and vicinity, together with Pasadena 
people — J. B. Coulston being especially active in its behalf. 
A fine site and golf course was purchased and an attractive 
club house built thereon. 

It is a center of social life for that vicinity and a popular 
resort for its members. Its present officers are : J. B. Coul- 
ston, President ; and Clinton C. Clarke, Secretary. 

The Huntington Golf Coukse 

This is in fact a part of the social life of the Hotel Hunt- 
ington, providing the athletic entertainment so desirable to 
guests. The fine course is located near the hotel and the club 
house is of historic interest, being the transformed "old mill," 
the history of which is recounted elsewhere. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 475 

The Twilight Club 

This club represents the highest type of intellectual life in 
men's clubs, and with its membership limited to eighty, there 
is always a long waiting list. 

Its organization was the result of effort made by a Mr. 
Abbot, a sojourner in Pasadena, who interested some friends 
in the idea. It was regularly organized October 6th, 1895, 
with Kev. J. Moss Merwin as President; J. H. Adams, Vice 
President ; and A. C. Vroman, Secretary. 

It holds monthly meetings for eight months in the year at 
the Neighborhood Club House, having a dinner which is fol- 
lowed by a stated address, or addresses, sometimes varied 
with lighter entertainments. 

Eev. Eobert Freeman is President for 1917; John Willis 
Baer, Vice President; and Eobert E. Ford, Secretary and 
Treasurer. 

The Cauldkon Club 

Organized in 1913 by some young business and profes- 
sional men of talent, and has made a prominent place for itself 
in Pasadena clubdom. Its meetings, like its compeers, are 
expositions of literary and musical talent and are held 
monthly. 

Its officers are: Henry Norton, President, and Elvon 
Musick, Secretary. 

The Centuky Club 

Like the Twilight Club, the Century Club aims high in 
the intellectual empyrean, and is noted for its quality. It 
was organized by such men as Lon F. Chapin, B. W. Hahn, 
C. M. Parker and Eev. F. M. Dowling, on January 17th, 1901. 
It still continues the practice of meeting in the residences of 
members — once monthly. 

The first officers were : C. H. Parsons, Vice President, and 
B. W. Hahn, Secretary. Nb president was elected until March 
5th, when Eev. F. M. Dowling was chosen. Its present officers 
are: Eev. F. D. Mather, President; Ira J. H. Sykes, Vice 
President ; and Eaymond Gr. Thompson, Secretary. Its mem- 
bership is limited to 60. 



476 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The Pioneer Society 

The fields are green and the nesting song 

Of building birds in the trees is heard; 
The scent of the soil is borne along, 

From fresh turned furrows the plow has stirred; 
Gay sunbeams gleam o'er shelving banks, 

With joyous kiss to the stream below t 
And marshaled there in their stately ranks, 

The golden poppies smile and glow. 

These are the memories that crowd upon the pioneer as 
he reposes in the snnny corner of the patio, and lets the pinions 
of retrospection carry him back to the days when he guided 
the plow that turned the virgin furrows. The pioneer renews 
these memories year by year, in happy reunions of the Pioneer 
Society, organized for the particular purpose of perpetuating 
them. It meets on the second Saturday of every June in some 
hospitable member's premises or under some favored oaks, 
for this avowed purpose. 

Eligibility consists in having been fortunate enough to 
have arrived prior to Dec. 31st, 1884 — or having parents who 
luckily did. Marriage to an eligible member will perfect title 
to this exclusive society. The pioneers, with that strong senti- 
ment of fraternity which characterized them in early days, 
declared it desirable to celebrate the Colony's natal day by 
a getting together. It was done, and on June 27th, 1876, the 
first pioneers' picnic was held under the spreading live oaks 
at Lincoln Park, South Pasadena. 

On another occasion a repetition of this reunion was held 
at Walter Cooley's. But no other regular meeting seems to 
have been held until some time in the early '80s, when a 
meeting was held in Williams Hall, at which P. M. Green pre- 
sided and C. W. Bell acted as secretary. After this nothing 
seems to have been done in this direction until when, in 1898, 
some pioneers revived the idea of forming a pioneer organi- 
zation, and in furtherance of this idea, a meeting was called 
at the Board of Trade rooms — then I believe, in the Wooster 
Block. At this meeting, which occurred November 17th, 1898, 
Col. J. Banbury was made chairman and M. Rosenbaum sec- 
retary. Just eleven persons participated, all of them the 
earliest settlers, for it had not yet been determined what would 
constitute eligibility. At this meeting it was decided that 
only those settling in the Colony prior to January 1st, 1879, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 477 

were entitled to membership (including their children) — a five 
year limitation. 

At this meeting also, a committee on by-laws was ap- 
pointed, consisting of Thos. F. Croft, J. H. Baker and M. 
Rosenbaum. Those present, joining, were as follows: P. M. 
Green, T. F. Croft, J. Banbury, Henry G. Bennett, S. Wash- 
burn, J. H. Baker, B. F. Ball, Alex. Mills, A. K. McQuilling, 
W. T. Clapp and S. Rosenbaum. The following, unable to be 
present, sent requests to be admitted and had their names 
enrolled : Miss Jennie Collier, Mrs. Margaret Collier Graham, 
Mrs. W. W. Ford, M. H. Weight, Miss Lulu and Howard Con- 
ger, and Mrs. Louise Conger, making an enrollment of eighteen 
all told. 

This meeting adjourned to meet December 13th, but I can 
find no record of another meeting having been held, nor defi- 
nite information regarding such. 

But the animating spirit did not die, yet it was not until 
1908, that it revived sufficiently to bring about another organi- 
zation. Then another meeting was held, again in the Board 
of Trade rooms. At this time S. Washburn presided and 
Frank Heydenreich acted as secretary. This was a precursor 
to other meetings and the organization of the Pasadena 
Pioneer Society, as at present constituted, the adoption of 
by-laws, and the election of H. W. Magee as president and 
F. H. Heydenreich as secretary. 

It was determined to enlarge the scope of eligibility, 
making anyone who became a resident of Pasadena prior to 
January 1st, 1884, eligible. Thus it stands and will probably 
so continue. 

It was found that, including children, about 150 persons 
were entitled to join the society and these have mostly done so. 

Since the organization began a reunion has been held each 
year, the first being held on the spacious grounds of Mrs. 
Margaret Collier Graham in South Pasadena, whose husband, 
it will be recalled by the reader, was Pasadena's first mail 
messenger — he of scholarly fame. 

The reunion of 1917 was held under the trees in Live Oak 
Park above Devil's Gate. At these reunions the "old timer" 
relaxes and grows young once again. He becomes reminiscent 
and relates how he planted his fruit trees, and how he fought 
the gopher, the grasshopper and the other " varmints' ' that 
played havoc with his gardens and fields. His better half, too, 



478 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

recalls with a quickening heart, the day when she plucked the 
first rose that bloomed on the bush beside the threshold, and 
gathered buttercups and forget-me-nots down in the meadow 
by the arroyo. Memories of the labors and tribulations of 
forty years, or longer, bring both happiness and sighs, for 
they recall years that held both in good measure. 

But it is worth while to remember such things now and 
then and the pioneer delights in the natal day of the Colony 
and its celebration. The thrill that comes with the vigorous 
hand clasp denotes the sympathies aroused and comradeship 
renewed. 

Death has come now and then to thin the ranks and each 
year finds another vacant. seat, or more, at the festal board; 
reminders that this inexorable toll will leave nothing in a few 
years but memories of the pioneer of the Indiana Colony. 
Charles W. Bell is President for 1917, and Miss Ethelyn 
Brown Secretary. 

The Tourist Club 

Some men, when they grow gray and old, seek solace by 
their firesides, or in doing chores about the garden. Some 
slip away into silent places, and then comes a day when a 
funeral will pass by and the inquirer will be told, "Why, that 

was old "; he hasn't been down town much these past 

years, and has been forgotten. But the Tourists Club has 
rescued many of these gray headed chaps from innocuous 
desuetude and oblivion. Here is an unique organization 
where old fellows — and some not so old as to be decrepit, meet 
daily and swap yarns, play checkers and chess, and pitch 
quoits. And let it be said, no trifling amateur may here con- 
test in this fascinating pastime with hopeful expectations. 

No exacting requirements here. Behave yourself, that's 
all! The headquarters on North Eaymond Avenue are open 
sesame to the good old chum. The president this year is S. T. 
Davisson, a good old sport. 

The Shakespeare Club 

"It deserves with characters of brass 
A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time 
And r azure of oblivion." 

The generality of women in Pasadena, have usually been 
able to walk alone and do important things in their own 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 479 

fashion. Pursuing this instinct they have met together and 
started movements where mere man has not heen invited or 
considered. So it has come about that woman, women individ- 
ually and collectively, have forwarded many affairs of civic 
and social betterment in their own way. Clubs of many kinds, 
organizations numerous, have been formed in restricted cir- 
cles and exclusive ways, as well as in wide and comprehending 
purposes. 

Pasadena's most important woman's club organization 
has been the Shakespeare Club. Important because it has 
undertaken many problems affecting themselves personally, 
the city and the public at large. The Shakespeare Club, 
though composed of women only, is not afraid to undertake 
any problem, no matter how intricate or how difficult. And 
yet, just two women began it and three planned it ! These 
five are worth especial mention here. Miss Clarabel Thomp- 
son, Miss Ellen F. Thompson, Mrs. E. B. Allen, Mrs. Benja- 
min Page and Mrs. A. K. Nash. 

The first meeting was held at Miss Clarabel Thompson's 
house on Palmetto Drive in June, 1888, when it was decided 
to form a reading club especially for the study of the bard 
of Avon. The scope was enlarged later and the study of other 
authors' writings included. A formal organization was ef- 
fected August 31st, 1888, the name adopted then being the 
" Woman's Reading Club." 

Miss Ellen F. Thompson, a long time popular teacher in 
the public schools, was chosen as President ; Mrs. A. K. Nash, 
Vice President; and Mrs. H. G-. Bennett, Secretary-Treasurer. 
The first Directors were Mrs. Mary Coman, Clara L. Dows, 
Marie A. Fisk, Edna W. Sanborn, Mary L. Rossiter, Ellen 
Burpee and Anna L. Meeker. Only twelve persons signed the 
original roll. But the club grew in numbers and for several 
years the club met at the homes of members, then becoming 
too large for that, occupied Stickney Memorial Hall and 
changed the name of the club to "The Shakespeare Club." 
Greater ambitions flamed. Desiring to own their own club 
house, a building corporation was formed and stock sold to 
members, from the proceeds of which a lot was purchased. 
This was in 1904. 

This was as much as could be done at the time, but these 
active women kept busy and by 1906 had sold sufficient stock 
to their own members to put up the excellent building the 



480 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

club now owns, costing $11,000. The corner stone was laid in 
April, 1905, and the club house finished and occupied in 
October, 1906. Since that time the club has acquired all of 
the stock. It was free of debt and dissolved the building 
corporation in June, 1913. In 1916 a lot adjoining the original 
premises was purchased and turned into a flower garden, 
which shows the predominating tendencies of the members 
despite the formidable intellectual program presented yearly. 

As now conducted the scope of the Shakespeare Club em- 
braces topics of ponderous interest; civic affairs and more 
entertaining ones besides lighten up the serious phases of 
clubdom. The membership is limited to 700 and has no 
vacancies. 

The present officers are : President, Mrs. Edwin M. Stan- 
ton; Hon. Vice President, Miss Susan H. Stickney; 1st Vice 
President, Mrs. Clayton E. Taylor ; 2nd Vice President, Mrs. 
John C. Eau; Eecording Secretary, Mrs. A. B. Anderson; 
Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Elizabeth B. Carder ; Auditor, 
Mrs. Harry Van Sittart. 





CHAPTER XLIX 

Business 

MANUFACTORIES, CANNERIES, ETC. 

ASADENA has never posed as a manufacturing 
city or as a place where the balance of trade is in 
its favor. In fact, many of its residents have 
sought it for the very reason that it is practically 
free from the noise and dust and smoke of manu- 
factories, giving it the charm that cannot wholly exist in 
industrial centers. 

Expecting, therefore, the relatively small production of 
citrus fruits, and canned fruit, there are no exports worth 
considering. Of course there are many small industries, 
shops, garages, etc., which give employment to many 
mechanics and laborers. I believe the automobile business 
will be found to lead these and return to its representatives 
more money than all others combined. Yet these do not 
represent real manufacturing establishments, but merely 
manufactured goods sold here. This chapter will review, 
cursorily, the principal establishments devoted to the prepa- 
ration or manufacture of products for the market. Obviously, 
we cannot include merely selling agencies, stores, places of 
business, or small shops employing a man or two as legiti- 
mate manufactories. 

I here present a report secured from the U. S. Census 
Bureau, which comprises carefully collected data. It does 
not include hand trades, or building trades, taking account 
only of factories, as stated. The table is for the year 1915 — 
the latest available. 

1915 1900 

Number of establishments 118 88 

Persons engaged in manufactures . . . 821 709 

Proprietors and firm members 120 92 

Salaried employees 148 117 

Wage earners (average number) . . . 553 499 

Primary horsepower 1,782 969 

481 

31 



482 PASADENA—HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



Capital $1,601,000 $1,347,000 

Services 585,000 497,000 

Salaries 156,000 117,000 

Wages 429,000 380,000 

Materials 869,000 853,000 

Value of products 1,972,000 1,724,000 

Value added by manufacture (value 

of products less cost of materials) 1,103,000 871,000 
The following list observes the conditions specified above, 
excepting in the case of laundries. 

Fkuit Dkying and Canning 

Numerous fruit drying establishments have been started 
in Pasadena, mostly by growers who desired to care for 
their own fruit, or perhaps a limited quantity of purchased 
fruit, but no large dryer has been established, one reason 
being that the one time large orchards of peaches and other 
deciduous crops have been replaced with homes, the lands 
being subdivided into more profitable town lots. A fruit 
crystallizing plant was organized in 1886 by Byron O. Clark 
and James E. Kiggins and began business in a building con- 
structed for the purpose on Grlenarm Street, but did not 
prove profitable and work was suspended. Then F. F. Stet- 
son acquired it in 1890 and began packing beans and other 
table supplies, continuing in business for several years. The 
plant finally went into the hands of the Pasadena Canning 
Company. 

Cannekies 

pasadena packing co. 

The first real industry of Pasadena which employed many 
persons, was the Wallace Cannery, built by Joseph Wallace 
in 1881 to meet a crying need for an output for the deciduous 
fruit — the peach and plum orchards, which were maturing 
and whose products had no other market than Los Angeles. 
This was called the "Pasadena Packing Company" and was 
built on Wallace's own ranch on (now) Lincoln Avenue and 
Mountain Street (now North Orange Grove Avenue). Only a 
dozen employees were needed in its first season, and but 
10,000 cans of fruit were packed. By 1884, 50,000 cans were 
packed. But in September of 1885, the establishment was 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 483 

burned. But Wallace, in 1886, organized a company- and thus 
acquired additional capital. 

In the company were George F. Kernaghan, Prof. T. C. 
S. Lowe and R. C. Commelin. Under the new company's 
management the output was increased largely and proved a 
fortunate market for growers. 

After varying fortunes, the business was purchased by Z. 
E. Drier in 1901, and has been owned and successfully con- 
ducted by him ever since. Drier owns the Sunset Cannery in 
Pomona and came with a thorough business knowledge. The 
plant has been enlarged to meet growing necessities, until 
it now employs from 250 to 300 men and women during the 
packing season, and has a pay roll of $3000 per week. The 
equipment represents an investment of over $80,000. 

For the season of 1917 a total of over 5000 tons of peaches, 
apricots and tomatoes will be packed, representing about 
200,000 packed cases. 

The Pasadena Manufactuking Company 

The beginning of this, one of Pasadena's largest in- 
dustrial plants, was in 1884, when C. B. Ripley and Harry 
Ridgeway, who were partners in the contracting business, 
built a small planing mill on East Union Street. It began 
business July 30th of the year aforesaid and continued it in 
conjunction with their house building enterprise, Ripley hav- 
ing charge of the mill. In December, 1886, a reorganization 
was effected, an incorporation formed and more capital 
secured. 

This corporation had as its officers, C. B. Ripley, B. F. 
Ball, James Clarke, Oscar Freeman, W. P. Forsyth, M. H. 
Weight, P. M. Green, O. M. Arnold, G. W. Pillbeam, R. 
Williams and M. S. Overmire. Forsyth was named presi- 
dent; Ball, vice-president; Freeman, secretary and Ripley, 
superintendent. A new location was secured for the plant 
on Broadway below Kansas Street, and a large building 
capable of employing 50 to 100, or even more employees, put 
up and machinery installed. 

It is worthy of statement that this establishment has con- 
tinued business with great success to this time. Further- 
more, until 1917, Messrs. Clarke and Freeman remained con- 
tinuously with it, Freeman as secretary and "estimator" 
and Clarke as superintendent, he having succeeded Ripley 



484 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

many years ago. B. F. Ball also remained nntil his death 
in 1915, succeeding Forsyth as president. In 1916 this busi- 
ness was sold to L. R. McKessen, who is president; W. A. 
Gripton, who is secretary, and some others, and is now suc- 
cessfully continued by them. It employs thirty-five to fifty 
persons. 

Mechanics Mill 

Another planing and woodworking mill built in 1887 on 
Chestnut Street by Messrs. R. H. Brent, F. F. Crowell and 
G. C. Halsey, becoming later the property Of Mann and 
Daniels. It was moved to South Broadway and eventually 
destroyed by fire. 

A Blinds Factory 

The Holland Blinds Factory, established in 1886 by W. S. 
Holland, Charles and Fred Swift and George Durrell on 
Chaplin Street, confined its work to the manufacture of a 
patent blind. The business was successfully conducted, 
eventually becoming owned by Holland alone. It was con- 
tinued until a few years ago when it closed down and was 
dismantled. 

A Brick Yard 

The Simons Brick Company, now become an important 
industry conducted near Los Angeles, obtained in its infancy 
the contract for furnishing brick for the Raymond Hotel in 
1884 and began making the brick for this purpose on a lot 
adjacent. This supply was soon exhausted and the yard was 
moved to Euclid Avenue near Maine Street. This supply 
also was exhausted and another move was made to Madeline 
Drive. This business was finally given up. Then "Joe" 
Simons came into the field and began the business which en- 
riched himself and brothers. Originally "Joe" had as part- 
ners J. S. Mills, who owned land that was supposed to pro- 
duce clay suitable for brick making. Operations were begun 
in a small way in 1886, but the clay was not satisfactory 
and the business given up in a few months. Simons found 
a better clay bed on Glenarm Street and Lake Avenue (Oak 
Knoll) and bought twenty acres of land there. He took 
into partnership his father, and brothers Elmer and Walter, 
and began operations in a small way in 1888. As the 
town grew into a city the demand for brick increased with 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 485 

it and the result was the great success of the Simons 
Brick Company. Long ago the clay beds here became un- 
profitable as such, but grew in value for residence property. 
In 1917 the old brick yard was purchased by W. R. Staats 
Co., for, it is said, $200,000 and is now being prepared for 
fine residences. Walter Simons is now sole proprietor of the 
present Simons Brick Co., which as stated is conducted in its 
newer field. 

The Citizens' Ice Company 

Was established in 1913 with T. M. Young as president 
and J. C. McLeemore, manager. It has a capacity of 50 tons 
with a storage reserve of 2000 tons and reports a regularly 
increasing business. 

The Edison Electric Light and Power Company 

The forerunner of this corporation in Pasadena was the 
Pasadena Light and Power Company, which was organized 
in March, 1888, by A. E. Metcalfe, C. W. Abbott, J. M. Glass, 
C. M. Skillen, D. Galbraith and J. H. Fleming, all local men. 
The articles of incorporation were granted January 31st, 1888. 
The capitalization of this company was $20,000 at first, but 
was increased to $25,000, December 9th, 1890. The power 
house was located on the site of the present Edison plant. 
Its office was for a time in the present Kendall Building on 
Union Street and Eaymond Avenue. The company began 
business, its first customer being E. F. Hurlbut for his Orange 
Grove Avenue home. On Janury 1st, 1894, the company made 
a contract with the city of Pasadena to light some of its streets 
for three years, the number of lights agreed upon being sixty- 
eight arc lights. 

In 1894 L. C. Torrance purchased control of the company 
and became its president, while J. Sidney Torrance, his 
brother, became secretary. Other directors were L. P. Han- 
sen, vice president, and F. C. Bolt, treasurer. 

In 1895 E. Groenendyke obtained a franchise for operating 
a similar plant, but assigned it to the aforesaid corporation 
afterwards. 

In 1898 the Edison Company of Los Angeles acquired the 
Pasadena company and operated it as a separate company 
for a year, when it was consolidated with the present corpo- 
ration, but has maintained its local transforming system. 



486 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The franchise which the company succeeded to was for fifty 
years, thus having twenty-seven years yet to run. 

The present Edison Company of Los Angeles has a $20,- 
000,000 auxiliary corporation which generates current from 
the Kern Eiver waters in Kern County, bringing it down from 
thence 200 miles or more over immense cables. Besides sup- 
plying its own Los Angeles and Pasadena plants, it has also 
plants in other cities and towns through the county. 

When the city of Pasadena became its local competitor a 
radical reduction of prices was inaugurated and a great strug- 
gle ensued between the companies, one to hold its business, 
the other to get it. The Edison Company being officered by 
local men to some extent (its president, John B. Miller, widely 
and popularly known, being a Pasadenan), proved a tenacious 
rival to the city and has been able to maintain a good busi- 
ness under the able local management of E. H. Mulligan. 

In 1917 a tentative proposition was submitted to the city 
of Pasadena whereby the city was to obtain a lease for two 
years and an option to purchase the entire local Edison busi- 
ness for $500,000 at the expiration of the lease. Contingent 
upon this proposition was the furnishing of electricity by the 
Edison Company for a term of thirty years. The manager 
of the municipal plant approved the plan, but the commis- 
sioners would not agree to it on account of the condition 
attached. The consolidation of the two plants is considered, 
by fair-minded people, a desideratum and would be voted 
favorably if submitted upon a reasonable basis, which will 
doubtless be done at some time. 

Pasadena Ice & Cold Stokage Company 

The Pasadena Ice Company, in its sixteen years of exist- 
ence, has grown into an important industry, the largest regu- 
lar employer of labor in the city. Beginning in 1901 with a 
plant capable of manufacturing only 15 tons of ice daily, it has 
developed steadily under the guidance of S. Hazard Halsted 
— who was its prime mover and organizer — until its present 
output is 125 tons with a prospective increase to 150 tons 
daily within a short time. 

S. Hazard Halsted interested Tod Ford Sr. in this enter- 
prise, who with his friend Myron C. Wicks of Youngstown, 
Ohio, and C. H. Hamilton, were the largest stockholders. 
The first officers were: President and Manager, S. Hazard 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 487 

Halsted; Vice-President, Freeman Ford; Secretary, Charles 
H. Hamilton; Treasurer, S. Bradsliaw. In 1903 the plant 
was enlarged; again in 1907, and still again in 1914; and at 
present employs 140 persons with an annual payroll of 
$85,000. It has 120 horses, 50 delivery wagons, 6 automobile 
trucks and several special delivery automobiles. The com- 
pany has established a group of buildings on South Broad- 
way, which includes -the ice making plant, machine shops, 
repair shops, etc., all entering into the general efficiency 
scheme, for here efficiency is the guiding note. Besides the 
ice manufacturing plant, there is a precooling plant which is 
capable of handling five or six cars of citrus fruits daily, and 
in connection therewith, a storage room for 15 carloads. 

The company has extended its business into adjacent 
towns, now having a manufacturing plant at Pomona and 
branch distributing offices at Alhambra, Sierra Madre, Eagle 
Rock, Grarvanza, Monrovia and Altadena. 

The present officers are: S. Hazard Halsted, President 
and Manager ; Freeman A. Ford, Vice-President ; Charles H. 
Hamilton, Secretary; and S. Bradshaw, Treasurer. Other Di- 
rectors are Wm. E. Staats, Henry M. Bobinson, E. S. Gosney 
and Tod Ford, Jr. 

The Batcheldek Tile Company 

A feature of many homes of late construction in Pasadena 
and also in Los Angeles is the artistic tile work shown in 
their fire places, and also interior decoration of wider scope. 
Inquiry will show that this work is done by the Batchelder 
Tile Co., which undertook an important enterprise in this 
direction in 1910, establishing a manufactory on South 
Broadway. Much artistic work is done here now under the 
superintendency of Holt Condon. 

Ernest A. Batchelder is president of the company, and 
has a Los Angeles office and designing room. 

Crown City Manufacturing Co. 

Is a prosperous manufactory of house finishings and 
similar work with its factory on the corner of Green Street 
and Vernon Avenue. 

Its beginning was "Ye Arts and Crafts Co." — some time 
in 1903 or '04 — which was sold to W. L. Leishman in 1905 and 
by him converted into the present extensive establishment 



488 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

employing from 35 to 50 men with a payroll of $30,000 to 
$40,000 annually and a reputation for reliability equalling 
any establishment in the city. 

Pasadena Milling Co. 

This business was originally established by Stephen 
Townsend, a pioneer resident, in 1886, who conducted it as 
his own business (he had no associates) for several years, 
then sold it to Byron Lisk. The business was chiefly crushing 
barley for horse and cattle feed. 

In 1906 the present company was incorporated by J. A. 
Cole who had purchased the business. Cole built a flour mill 
on South Raymond Avenue, capable of making 200 barrels of 
flour daily and has established a large business. 

J. A. Cole is president; Byron Lisk, vice president; and 
J. M. Cole is manager of the company. 

Laundkies 

"While laundries are not manufactories, yet they repre- 
sent large business investments and distribute a heavy pay- 
roll. They are therefore considered worthy of mention as 
"industries." 

Tkoy Laundey 

This is the oldest established business of this kind in 
Pasadena. It was begun in 1898 as a small venture, but in 
1901 became an incorporated company under the above title, 
and the ownership went into the hands of S. B. Tubbs, L. P. 
Boynton and Willis H. Smith. Luther Gr. Newby and H. C. 
Holt later became stockholders; eventually the Tubbs and 
other stock was absorbed by Newby and associates. Newby 
is now president and manager of the company. 

The plant was burned in 1915, but has since been rebuilt 
and now has an up-to-date equipment in every particular. It 
represents an investment of more than $100,000, employs 
from 85 to 100 persons and has a pay-roll of $1200 per week. 
L. G. Newby is president and H. C. Holt is secretary. 

The Yosemite Laundey 

The Yosemite Laundry was established in 1904 by Victor 
Marsh and Hugh Reed with some other Pasadena stock- 
holders. It has achieved a successful business and now em- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 489 




490 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

ploys from 75 to 100 persons with a weekly payroll of $1000.00 
to $1200.00. Victor Marsh is president, and H. E. Wagner, 
secretary and manager. 

The Royal Laundry 

The nnit of this plant, owned by H. M. Haskell and L. F. 
Caswell, was moved from South Pasadena in 1909 and made 
a bid for wider business, which it received. In 1916 A. C. 
Tubbs, having severed his connection with the Troy Laundry, 
purchased the control of the Eoyal, and is now its president 
and manager. Peter Hall is vice president and A. L. Row- 
land, secretary. It employs 135 persons and has a pay roll 
of $1400.00 weekly and an investment of $116,000. 

Pasadena Orange Gkoweks Association 
pasadena fruit growers association 

Until the California orange grower began to understand 
the wisdom of co-operation, he was at the mercy of the buyer 
and the commission man, and he was the under dog all the 
time. With the organization of the citrus fruit associations 
of Southern California, the grower began to prosper and the 
condition of the fruit to improve, as it must, under scientific 
co-operation and education. 

Local organizations were the beginning of this larger co- 
operation, and measurably solved the difficulties that had 
harrowed the grower. 

Pasadena, beginning as a fruit growing colony, became 
aware of these conditions very soon, but did not prepare for 
them until 1893, when "red ink" balances drove them to it. 
On December 14th of that year an association was formed 
in Pasadena, named, originally, the Pasadena Fruit Growers 
Association with a board of directors composed of C. C. 
Thompson, David M. Smyth, M. E. Wood, B. F. Ball, James 
Smith, Byron Lisk and Charles E. Tibbetts. C. C. Thomp- 
son was president for two years and was succeeded by 
George F. Kernaghan. 

In 1909 the name of the Association was changed to the 
name given above, and in 1910 it obtained the trade marks 
"Arroyo" and "Echo" for its output, and has used them 
ever since, but also makes a special pack of "Sunkist" — the 
brand of the Fruit Growers Exchange of Southern California 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 491 

— which widely advertises this choice brand. The first ship- 
ment of oranges by this association was packed in a building 
on the Santa Fe tracks, south of California Street. 

The present fine concrete packing plant was built in 1913 
(at 1097 South Marengo Avenue) and is a busy place during 
the season, employing from 75 to 100 persons. About 115 
shippers are represented and ship the products of about 600 
acres of citrus fruit. The crop of 1916-17 was 360 carloads 
of 400 boxes (average) each, or a total of 144,000 packed 
boxes, which netted to the grower nearly $200,000. 

The present officers of the Association are : William Pol- 
lard, President; W. M. Eason, Vice-President; A. J. Nei- 
meyer, D. J. Green, F. E. Chapman, Lloyd R. Macy and G. A. 
Darling, other Directors. William H. Beckman is Secretary 
and Manager and has been with the Association for a number 
of years. 

A Coal Mine 

It is not known to very many that in pioneer days an 
effort was made to develop a coal mine in the Arroyo bank 
just opposite Columbia Street. A seam of lignite was found 
and some developments made but as the coal was not of very 
good burning quality the project was abandoned. 





CHAPTER L 

Tkades Organizations 

HE labor unions of Pasadena have been neither mili- 
tant nor aggressive, but they have been recognized 
and respected as organizations ever since they 
came into existence. For one thing, they have 
earned the reputation of being reasonable and con- 
sistent, and possessed with a desire to be " square,' ' and have 
not submitted to the dictation of would-be "bosses" with 
selfish objects. I believe there has never been a strike or 
lockout involving the labor unions of Pasadena seriously. 

Altogether, there are now 20 unions or allied associations, 
comprehending about all branches of trades or industries 
carried on here. All of these organizations are under the 
direction of a central Board of Labor, a central body which 
is, in effect, a "clearing house" for its co-ordinating bodies. 
In the course of time it became evident, that aside of mere 
organization there should be a growing efficiency in all de- 
partments of industry and this ambition has been one of the 
fostered aims of the associated unions. To more effectually 
carry out this idea and to bring the entire membership into 
harmonious action, a Labor Temple Association was formed 
and the property at the corner of Raymond Avenue and Wal- 
nut Street purchased in 1911 for $20,000. This property em- 
braces several cottages in one of which is established the 
office and headquarters of the organization. It is intended 
that a Labor Temple will be built on this property which will 
prove adequate for all purposes. Harry A. Huff, member of 
the Typographical Union, was chosen as secretary in 1909, 
and has since continued in that position — a popular and 
efficient official. He was also, in 1910, president of the Labor 
League. In the direction of education, demonstrations and 
instructions in various crafts have been featured and have 
been much appreciated by members. 

History 

The original charter of the Pasadena Board of Labor was 
issued October 26th, 1905, and under it the central council 

492 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 493 

conducted its affairs. This charter was surrendered and a 
new one replaced it November 3rd, 1913, as the "Pasadena 
Board of Labor." The first meeting was held January 22d, 
1906, with J. W. Hart of the Typographical Union as presi- 
dent, and J. W. Halpin of the Millmen's Union as secretary. 
From that time on regular meetings were held and the usual 
business of the Unions conducted. 

It may be further stated that the Union Labor bodies of 
Pasadena have always taken an active part in all public 
movements and in local political issues. In bond issues also, 
these bodies have been important factors and have usually 
supported such propositions. 

They have also gone on record in favor of National pro- 
hibition. 

No more than mention may be made of the various labor 
organizations in the city, the appended list being officially 
reported. 

Trade Labor Unions — Names and Headquarters 

Board of Labor Halls — 42 East Walnut Street. Labor 
Temple Halls — Cor. Eaymond Avenue and Walnut Street. 

Central Bodies 

Board of Labor, meets first and third Mondays. William 
Prosser, President. 

Labor Day Association, meets every Monday in July and 
August. Harry S. Haver, President. 

Labor Temple Association, Pasadena Union (Incorpor- 
ated). Directors meet second and fourth Tuesdays. Edward 
B. Hillier, President. 

Printing Trades Council, Allied, of Pasadena, meets third 
Tuesday. James T. Jenkins, President. 

Craft Unions 

Bakery and Confectionery International Union of Amer- 
ica. Local No. 15 meets first Saturday afternoon. Bobert 
Brown, Secretary. 

Barbers' International Union of America No. 604 — S. E. 
Detrick, President ; C. E. Mraz, Secretary. 

Bricklayers' ', Masons' and Plasterers' International, Local 
No. 15. Harry S. Haver, President; F. E. Coleman, Sec- 
retary. 



494 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Carpenters and Joiners of America, United Brotherhood 
of, Local No. 769. Jay Smedley, President; S. J. Seeds, Sec- 
retary. 

Electrical Workers, International Brotherhood of, Local 
No. 418. P. G. White, President; H. E. Gage, Secretary. 

Label League, Women's International Union, No. 178. 
Mrs. Lnlu 0. Carson, President; Mrs. J. M. Harvey, Secre- 
tary. 

Lathers, International Union of, Wood, Wire and Metal, 
Local No. 81. Chas. F. Ward president; W. A. Hoggan, 
Secretary. 

Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America, 
Brotherhood of, Local No. 92. J. F. Tatlow, President; H. C. 
Bricker, Secretary. 

Plasterers' International Association, Journeymen Oper- 
ative, Local No. 194. W. J. Langstaff , President ; Elmer Sei- 
bert, Secretary. 

Plumbers, Gas fitters, Steam fitters, and Steamfltters Help- 
ers, United States and Canada, United Association Journey- 
men, Local No. 280. Beach B. Knight, President ; J. H. Simp- 
son, Secretary. 

Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union, International, 
Local No. 155. James T. Jenkins, President; Ed. C. Evans, 
Secretary. 

Sheet Metal Workers' International Alliance, Amalga- 
mated, Local No. 293. W. E. Williams, President; A. B. 
Haffner, Secretary. 

Typographical Union, No. 583. George A. Swerdfiger, 
President ; Harry A. Huff, Secretary. 

Carpenters 131 amalgamated with Carpenters 769. 

Cement workers 195. Amalgamated with Plasterers. 

Building Laborers relinquished charter. 




CHAPTER LI 

The Pasadena Hospital — Hygienic Problems, Etc. 

information by theodore coleman, secretary of the association 

HE Pasadena Hospital is an institution of twenty-five 
years ' growth, having* had a very humble beginning 
in 1892. It is now of sufficient proportions to 
occupy its own site of six acres, and to maintain 
one hundred beds in buildings constructed and 
equipped to care for patients in the several departments of 
medicine, surgery, maternity and children's diseases. A dis- 
pensary (virtually free to patients) is also conducted on the 
grounds in connection with the hospital, and for the accommo- 
dation of sixty to seventy pupil nurses who are in training in 
the hospital — a picturesque building occupying a site in the 
immediate neighborhood. 

Of the ten members who were present to form the Pasa- 
dena Hospital Association in July, 1892, but two are now 
living — Judge G. A. Gibbs and G. F. Kernaghan. The former 
acted as secretary at this charter meeting and he is at this 
writing the association's president. The other citizens pres- 
ent at the initial gathering were J. W. Scoville, P. M. Green, 
A. R. Metcalfe, W. U. Masters, E. R. Hull, T. S. C. Lowe, A. G. 
Throop and J. A. Buchanan. The first board of directors 
chosen was composed of Messrs. Scoville, Metcalfe, Lowe, 
Hull, Green, Kernaghan and Mr. E. F. Hurlbut. 

A period of seven years elapsed before the association had 
much more than laid a firm foundation for a hospital. In 
February, 1900, the association had a few beds in small rented 
quarters over the Staats Company's building at the corner of 
Raymond Avenue and Green Street, where the embryo hos- 
pital was maintained until 1902. Then the first unit of the 
present plant was erected on ground donated by Mrs. Caroline 
Wakeley. The funds for this building were contributed by 
citizens of the city, and it is to the liberality of other citizens 
that the plant was enlarged by successive units to its present 
size, and that an endowment fund of not quite $100,000 has 
been built up by slow accretions. Donors of buildings were 

495 



496 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Mrs. R. J. Burdette, Mrs. E. M. Fowler and Miss Kate Fowler, 
Mr. 0. S. A. Sprague and Mr. J. D. Wilde. 

The list of those who in the early period of the hospital's 
history devoted their time and efforts to promoting the inter- 
ests of the young institution included many of the best known 
men and women of the community, but is too big for this brief 
sketch. The first directors chosen after the actual work of 
the hospital began in 1901 were Mrs. H. G. Bennett, Mrs. 
James Sroatt, Miss Anna Bartlett, Messrs. E. H. May, J. W. 
Hugus, H. M. Dobbins and H. H. Klamroth. The latter acted 
also as director secretary of the board up to the time of his 
death in 1911. 

The present working staff of the Hospital Association is 
composed of Mrs. Robert J. Burdette, John Wadsworth, Mrs. 
A. M. Merwin, Mrs. George E. Hale, Judge George A. Gibbs, 
Frank S. Wallace, Mrs. J. S. Torrence, D. B. Gamble, Mrs. 
Arthur Noble, Commander J. J. Hunker and Dr. S. P. Black. 
Directors (printed in order of length of service) : Judge 
Gibbs, president; Mrs. Burdette, first vice president; F. S. 
Wallace, second vice president; John Wadsworth, treasurer 
and auditor; Theodore Coleman, secretary; Miss Gila Pick- 
hardt, superintendent. 

Marengo Hospital 

This hospital was organized in 1912 and has associated 
with it such medical men as Dr. H. A. Fiske, Dr. W. A. Cundy, 
Dr. George Campbell and others, purchasing the fine home 
and grounds of Dr. Grinnell on North Marengo Avenue, which 
have been transformed into proper accommodation for the 
hospital uses. It has gained a reputation that has brought to 
it considerable patronage. It is the intention of the corpora- 
tion to build more substantial buildings and create a high 
class, well equipped hospital in the near future. 

Present officers are: Dr. H. A. Fiske, president; Dr. 
George Campbell, secretary. 

Hygienic Pkoblems 

LET US SEWER WAS THE CRY OFT REPEATED, AND IT WAS DONE 

One of the serious, one of the most serious problems of the 
early days, when the sudden growth of Pasadena presented 
problems faster than they could be met because of delays inci- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 497 

dent to legal red tape was the portentous one of sewerage. 
It was a question involving the health of the people. Thanks 
must be tendered to H. J. Vail, then editor of the Star, for his 
persistent and capable labors in keeping the subject before 
the public and stirring them into action by his many editorials. 
It was not until 1886, when the village had become a town of 
several thousand, that any steps were definitely taken in the 
matter. In fact, as there was no incorporation, no legal or 
enforced steps could be taken. But by incorporation the city 
had the legal means at hand. 

In 1886 the trustees began to discuss the question of sani- 
tation, and in 1887 it had been decided to operate a " sewer 
farm" as the best means under the existing conditions. Three 
hundred and twenty acres of suitable lands were purchased 
for $125 per acre. (Afterwards 200 acres more were pur- 
chased adjoining the original unit for $25,000.) This body of 
land lies three miles southwest from Pasadena. Difficulties 
of many kinds were contended with from the beginning. Bonds 
to the amount of $159,500 were voted (the first bonds voted for 
in the city) and preparations made to begin work. The trus- 
tees, not being experienced in disposal of bonds, and there 
being as yet no bank with capital sufficient to purchase them, 
a contract was made with a sharp speculator to dispose of 
them for a commission of $10,000. Unfortunately he received 
his commission before the bonds were sold — and failed to keep 
his part of the contract ! First experience in high finance by 
green trustees ! A company styling itself the Pacific Sewer- 
age Company next made an agreement to dispose of these 
bonds for a commission of $14,000 ; no money to be paid until 
bonds were sold and the cash paid over ! Wisdom prevailed. 
Then the residents in the vicinity of the route through which 
the sewer mains were to be run made objection, fearing that 
damage would result to their property. Litigation was 
begun. Contracts had been already let in 1887 for laying 
some mains in Pasadena and the work proceeded notwith- 
standing injunction suits. The city won when the suits were 
brought, on the ground that the use of the streets for mains 
would produce an unsanitary condition. Other legal obsta- 
cles were compromised, thus giving clear sailing for the 
continuation of the work. The outfall was completed in 
1892 — fiye years after the work had been begun. In its 
beginning crops of barley and wheat, hay, pumpkins, corn 

32 



498 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

and alfalfa were experimented with on the farm lands. In 
1892 sixty acres were planted to English walnuts, which area 
has since been increased to 114 acres ; and fifty acres have also 
been planted to oranges ; all of which show a splendid growth 
and produce fine crops which in some years are sufficient to 
pay for maintaining the farm. The system of sewerage man- 
agement is such that it is not obnoxious to the neighborhood ; 
is, in fact, quite satisfactory, and has been recently further 
improved by the installation of an Ihmhoff tank, which has 
proved measurably satisfactory. Much credit is due August 
Meyer, city engineer at the time the system was being 
installed, for his valuable scientific advice ; and, in fact, it was 
because of his knowledge of similar plants in Europe that pre- 
vailed upon the trustees and induced them to install a like 
system here. Edson Turner was the first trustee who had this 
branch of the city's business in hand, and his good sense was 
well shown in its management. Following Turner came M. M. 
Parker, S. Washburn, W. A. Heiss, W. B. Loughery and Har- 
ley Newell, respectively members of the several municipal 
bodies, and who, as chairmen of the committee on these mat- 
ters, were responsible for their success. S. 0. McGrew became 
superintendent and remained as such until 1914, and was suc- 
ceeded by A. B. Cole. 

The constant encroachment upon the borders of the city 
farm by subdivision and settlement has brought with it two 
conditions : one the vast increase in the value of the farm 
making it almost too valuable for the purpose it is used for. 
It is probable that this land is now worth nearly $1,000,000 
for residential purposes. Another reason is that, notwith- 
standing the known fact that this farm already existed, later 
purchasers of property have made complaints, mostly imagi- 
nary, of their objectionable neighbor and threaten injunction 
proceedings every now and then. Whether well founded or 
not, the city commissioners, foreseeing legal troubles and 
desiring to anticipate them, in 1915 purchased a tract of 600 
acres of land lying like a cup in the hills a few miles farther 
south, paying $150,000 therefor. It was their design to have 
Alhambra and South Pasadena unite with this city in a part- 
nership sewer farm and this arrangement has been effected 
so far as proceedings have gone, each of these cities pro rating 
the cost and thus solving a vexing problem that worried the 
sister communities. One hundred thousand dollars was the 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 499 

portion paid by Pasadena. Since this purchase legal obsta- 
cles have been set up by communities near the land, and no 
steps can be further taken with this project until these obsta- 
cles are overcome. In the meantime it was suspected that this 
land might be oil-producing, and in 1917 a lease was made with 
E. L. Doheny of Los Angeles, he paying $75 per acre and one- 
sixth royalty on production, a lease which requires the lessee 
to begin and continue development without cessation for a 
term of years. Pasadena may yet have an oil farm of its own, 
as indications are reasonably good at this writing. 

A Garbage Incinerator 

The disposal of such garbage as could not otherwise be 
utilized, a matter of municipal importance, was solved in 1912 
when a bond issue of $60,000 was voted for this purpose. 
Fourteen thousand dollars of this was paid for a lot on South 
Raymond Avenue, and an incinerating plant,- capable of 
destroying five tons daily, was built. 

It has proved itself a happy solution of this problem. In 
1917 a contract was made whereby the city is paid $1 per ton 
for all garbage and collection made by the contractor. It is 
reduced to a chicken food and a fertilizer, and is said to be a 
profitable enterprise. 

A Chlorination Plant 

A system of precipitation of the water impurities by 
chlorination, or the "dosing" of the water with chlorine gas — 
one part of the gas to 5,000,000 parts of water — was instituted 
in 1916 with success, and at a cost of only one cent for each 
672,000 cubic feet of water. This method is not pursued on 
account of known impurities in or contamination of the water 
in its normal condition, but as an insurance against accidental 
contamination by bacillus coli, on account of the carelessness 
of campers. For though the Arroyo is patrolled by fire 
rangers during the summer and every precaution exercised, 
yet the process insures the absolute purity of the water at all 
times. 



CHAPTER LII 

The Alps of Pasadena 

THE SIERRA MADRES 

mother mountains! billowing far to the snowlands, 
Robed in aerial amethyst, silver and blue. 

Why do you look so proudly down on the lowlands, 
What have their groves and gardens to do with you? 

Theirs is the languorous charm of the orange and myrtle. 
Theirs are the fruitage and fragrance of Eden of old, — 

Broad-boughed oaks in the meadows fair and fertile, 
Dark-leaved orchards gleaming with globes of gold. 



O mother mountains, Sierra Madre, I love you! 

Rightly you reign o y er the vale that your bounty fills, — 
Kissed by the sun, or big, bright stars above you, — 

/ murmur your name and lift up mine eyes to the hills. 

Henry Van Dyke. 

the mountains that give us climate for our wellbeing, and af- 
ford joy in their possession. barriers against desert storms, 
and conservers of the rainfall that comes to us by and by in 
purling streams. 

T has been said by travelers that nowhere else may 
one see a more splendid combination of mountain 
scenery where loveliness and picturesqueness are 
blended in exqnisite variety, than is embraced 
within the area of the Angeles National Park. This 
National Forest Reserve traverses three counties, and com- 
prises 1,159,663 acres, is forty miles across and is about 100 
in length — as the eagle flies, for it is the home of the eagle, 
who perches in lonesome state upon his pine top aerie and 
scans its loveliness. This forest park reaches from the San 
Grorgonio Pass on the east to the foothills of the San Fernando 
Valley on the west, and from the San Gabriel Valley to the 
Mojave Desert. 

500 




PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 501 

But it is only with that province which lies within the 
scope of these chronicles that I will particularly deal — that bit 
between the San Gabriel Canyon and the place where the Big 
Tejunga deploys upon the mesas of La Crescenta. This is 
the watershed of the San Gabriel Valley; on these mountain 
slopes are gathered the rains of winter and the waters of the 
melting snows, to be stored until they are needed in the rain- 
less months that follow. Then, in sparkling streams, come 
these conserved rains, bringing life and sustenance to 
orchards, vineyards and to the gardens that are scattered in 
the valley below, whose response is in gold and emerald — in 
the bloom of the millions of flowers, and in the evergreen 
groves burdened with their golden harvests. 

Furthermore, these mountain walls are barriers that pro- 
tect us from the hot air waves of summer that would otherwise 
sweep across from the Mojave Desert and render unendurable 
these smiling valleys and prosperous cities with their lux- 
urious homes and blooming gardens. True it is that among 
these frowning peaks we find no Jungfrau with its icy crags 
and formidable crevasses, nor do we have a Mont Blanc with 
mighty pinnacle and everlasting snows. But we have the 
lesser, yet beautiful and stately, San Gorgonio, San Jacinto 
and San Antonio; grand enough and beautiful enough to 
satisfy more than average yearnings or assuage the longings 
of the Alpine clmber. And among them can be found nooks 
yet uninvestigated and where man's footsteps are unknown. 

Officially the range we contemplate is known as the San 
Gabriel, but the padres of old — more poetic and sentimental — 
chose from their own nomenclature the more satisfying 
"Sierra Madres" — or Mother Mountains; and so they are 
known and preferred, despite geographers and pedagogues. 

With fortuitous chance Pasadena was located at just the 
proper distance from these mountains to confer upon them 
the atmospheric alchemy which lends to them their supreme 
beauty, transforms their rugged outlines into pleasing sil- 
houettes and confers that splendid color effect seen with every 
phase of the sun's movements, and in every hour of the day. 
The genius of Hill and of Moran have been exerted to repro- 
duce the true California atmosphere upon canvas, but even 
these magicians of the brush have never quite caught its 
exquisite beauty and charm. 

Contemplating this range of summits from Pasadena one 



502 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

can but be impressed with their changeability under differ- 
ent lights and at different hours. Viewed through the amber 
haze of summer, they lie recumbent, remote and seemingly 
somewhat inaccessible. But when the winter's rains wash the 
sky, and clear the atmosphere of its smoke and dust, these 
low-lying ridges spring from their suppliant positions, their 
features become clear and recognizable, and they move for- 
ward to us in close and friendly intimacy. It is then their 
canyon portals open wide and free, and friendly trails are 
revealed — an invitation to more familiar acquaintance. Such 
is the magic of California atmospheres. 

Their features most striking from Pasadena are of course 
the prominent peaks. First and most noticeable is San Anto- 
nio, or "Old Baldy," as it is commonly called, on account of 
its hoary head, lying sixty miles eastward and rising 10,080 
feet above the sea level. Far away, and hardly in our province 
of description, yet worthy of notice, are San Gorgonio, the 
capsheaf of our mountain field, 11,465 feet high, and San 
Jacinto, not quite so high, but imposing, because of its isolated 
and dominating position over lesser surrounding summits. 

Nearer, and of greater importance to us, lies Mount Wil- 
son — almost the center of our picture. Mount Wilson stands 
5,865 feet in altitude, but from our present point of view is 
not especially imposing. It is of great importance, however, 
because science has chosen it, or a spur of it, and upon the 
chosen site has established an Acropolis dedicated to the stel- 
lar world. Here strange tubes, with alert, peering eyes, have 
been built, and busy themselves grasping from celestial obscur- 
ity hitherto humble and unnoted stars, weigh them, con them 
over and label them with strange-sounding names. Upon this 
mountain top also may be found comforting things to feast 
upon and enjoy; downy couches for weary limbs, and quiet 
inexpressible for tired beings who have journeyed there afoot. 

But again to Pasadena, where, gazing athwart the range, 
we next note Mount Lowe, accessible, through engineering 
achievement, by means of great steel cables and electric trol- 
leys, leading into cloudland 5,757 feet up ! Then there is 
Mount Islip, still higher — 8,240 feet — yet less distinguishable 
from here because of its remoteness; Strawberry Peak — 
named so because of the berries found there — sweet and lus- 
cious. Disappointment Peak, 6,723 feet; San Gabriel, 8,000 
feet ; Waterman, 8,020 feet — all monsters rearing their proud 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 503 

heads above the multitudinous ones surrounding them — less 
conspicuous, less important, yet all adding to the scheme that 
Nature laid out in this Brobdingnagian Cosmos. 

The distant canyons between are more or less negotiable, 
some perhaps by aircraft alone, and then only by adventurous 
mariner! Others, by man afoot or astride the sure-footed 
horse, the mule, or by that patient and plodding beast, the 
humble, docile burro — man's amiable and important friend of 
both desert and mountain. 

The Top of the World 



AND CANYONS. A PANORAMA OF SURPRISING LOVELINESS OBSERVED 
FROM A SPIDER-LEGGED TOWER. 

Let me now transport you, on the carpet of Aladdin, or 
in imagination, if preferred, from your rose-scented bower 
on the Pasadena piazza, to view with me, from a very exclu- 
sive aerie at the Mount Wilson Observatory, the marvels that 
Nature can portray when she gets busy. 

By the aid and connivance of a friendly star gazer who 
shares my enthusiasm,* I was drawn up in a steel basket— by 
the mere pressure of a button — to the top of the tallest tower 
on the grounds at Observatory Peak, 150 feet above terra 
firma. Its spindling supports look frail and incapable; but 
this is forgotten in the thrill of ascent to the aerial throne, 
and banished forever with the first glimpse from the top of 
that miraculous pedestal. There one may realize the terrible 
temptation of the biblical story wherein the prince of evil was 
said to have offered worlds as a bribe ! 

Surely, God never made scene more beautiful, more incom- 
parably lovely for man's eyes to behold than the panorama 
that surrounds us here ! Emotions, unashamed, uncontrolla- 
ble, must fill even the stoic at this — a spontaneous tribute to 
things sublime and beautiful. Happy was I that opportunity 
and an auspicious hour gave opportunity for a view of these 
inspiring scenes at their best ; and the deeper regret now at 
the inadequacy of^a faltering pen! 

A thousand peaks, a thousand canyons, clothed in their 
mantle of infinite loveliness, a mantle of shifting lights and 



* I owe this and other valuable opportunities to Prof. Hoge of the Observ- 
atory force, whose kindness and information gave me unwonted pleasure. 



504 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

evanescent shadows. Blue and green — the twin harmonies of 
nature — dwell paramount, from the most ethereal azure to 
the deepest indigo, and from the sombre green of the pine to 
the brightest-tinted emerald — these exhaust the palette of the 
Great Artist who painted their marvelous vestments. A maze 
of intricate canyons weaving into obscure distances ; canyons 
big, canyons little; peaks gigantic and peaks commonplace — 
by contrast — Ossa upon Pelion, piled by Olympian giants upon 
a tempestuous day! 

Most conspicuous, San Antonio rears its mighty battle- 
ments in the east ; westward, San Gabriel ; Markham with its 
flat top — a gigantic table where Titans many have supped 
while Jupiter presided ! Gog and Magog may have at times 
reposed their giant legs beneath it, cracking plutonic jokes 
while satyrs trembled in canyons below. 

Gaze valleyward at yonder groves and spreading fields, 
where glimpses of clustering homes denote civilization, and 
where conspicuous facades bespeak concomitant enterprise in 
Pasadena. Just below us debouches the great jaws of Eaton's 
Canyon into the spreading wash that denotes ruthless wintry 
floods. There, at its very mouth, near Altadena, is the toll 
road entrance, and from it may be traced the winding road, a 
broad, yellow ribbon unrolling its intricate convolutions into 
canyons, about the breasts of mountains, losing itself in um- 
brageous retreats — yet ever ascending — until at last it halts 
beneath our very feet ! An efficient forest patrol has happily 
prevented the devastating fires that once prevailed, and these 
slopes are now thickly clothed in green, in russet and in 
browns of varying shades. Those far away slopes are emer- 
ald velvet, soft and smooth as milady's robes! Closer, they 
are manzanita, holly, scrub oak and buckthorn in thickest 
profusion. Those distant, spindling "saplings" are, in fact, 
pine and fir trees, clinging with miraculous tenacity and in 
spite of wintry blasts to anchoring slopes or rocky footholds, 
where they thrive and flourish. 

And behold, as the day dwindles, the chill of approaching 
night thickens the vapors in the canyons, until they become 
translucent mists, lazily floating in filmy draperies, such as 
Penelope might have spun for tardy Ulysses. Denser they 
grow — i n to clouds — slowly submerging the canyons below. 
Now and again fragments of cottony masses, detached from 
parent cloud, float upward in twisting filaments until dissi- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 505 

pated in space; or betimes, cling, fluttering, to jntting tree, 
like a beckoning scarf. 

But the sun, splendid iconoclast of time, moves majes- 
tically onward to his ocean bed. The shadows grow and 
linger, and the veil of luminous amethyst that mantles the 
peaks grows denser and denser. The azure becomes indigo, 
and the splendors of the panorama grow less and less vivid 
before the settling gloom of fading day. 

With imminent night the thickening mists submerge the 
lower summits until their tops only appear — enchanted 
islands — amidst living, snowy billows. 

Then the sun, as if to give one more exhibition of hi" dying 
splendors, slips — a globe of liquid gold — behind a bar of cloud 
that has lain waiting in his path. The cloud, transformed 
into a marvelous banner of crimson and rose and buttercup 
yellow, hangs resplendent against a flaming sky, and through 
it darts a million glittering javelins that paint yonder pinna- 
cles in glory and floods the valley with their parting beams. 

Then night creeps down, night still and profound, with its 
message of inarticulate silences — that brooding hush that 
comes when darkness enfolds a forest or other remote place — 
and muffles it into solemn peace. 

The hey of day is turned — and night 

With drowsy eyelids, gently pressed, dips down — 

But it is but for a brief time. There is yet another spec- 
tacle in store scarcely less imposing. The moon — as if lying 
in wait — perhaps jealous of the greater luminary, now rises 
in stately, silvery splendor, flooding the scene with her own 
enchanting radiance. The King of Day is forgotten in the 
glories of the Queen of Night ; and, for the time, our devoirs 
are accordingly transferred. 

Then the stars pricked gleaming diamond points in the 
sable canopy : Venus, glowing in her ardent fires, hung sus- 
pended in illimitable space, and the Milky Way, with its 
myriad of worlds, robed the heavens with a luminous scarf. 
So, before these empyrean splendors man humbles his arro- 
gance, and bows in silent homage to the mysteries he cannot 
understand. 

Night on Observatory Peak closes for us, the steel cable 
descends, and once again we face mere mundane things — a 
dinner and a smoke! 



506 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



But there is another scene from Mount Wilson, a night 
view from Signal Peak. Night has spread its robes over the 
valley below, producing its own wonders there. From the 
forty odd towns that are scatered there, bursts forth a grand 
pageant of electric lights — a million of glittering torches in 
parade — from San Pedro to Pomona — and farther still! It 
is a scintillating battalion of electric stars worth a long jour- 
ney to behold. 

There is still another view from Mount Wilson which only 
the early riser may enjoy — the sunrise through the sea of 
clouds that at times lies like a floor of movable, billowy cotton 
below the summit, as if the world were topsy-turvy and the 
heavens were below us, a canopy of clouds. 

Through these billows a blood-red disk, rises slowly and 
ponderously, emerging as from a foamy sea. 

And from these mighty billows beams 
The sun, and flings its banners wide. 





CHAPTER LIII 

Mount Wilson Solar Observatory 

star gazing from a mountain top. mysteries of uncanny distances 
and a peep into space. 

HE human mind has ever contemplated the starry 
heavens with awed interest, and speculated upon 
their mysteries. Since the time of the Chaldeans, 
at least, man has peered into these fathomless dis- 
tances, invoked their secrets and prognosticated 
their final story. 

Come then, because of this desire, a body of star gazers, 
yclept astronomers, who set up great tubes and strange- 
appearing instruments, and with infinite patience map out 
the canopy of heaven, chart the stars that fall within their 
vision, analyze their composition, and tell the common person, 
in figures incalculable and stupefying to him, something about 
this tremendous mystery we denominate The Universe. 

These men set giant telescopes within colossal domes, and 
with them photograph those trembling specks of light we call 
stars, and resolve them into suns of enormous magnitude and 
splendor. They set giant cameras upon tall legs and take 
pictures of the spots on the sun and tell us of their vastness 
and of the turmoil that rages in that cauldron of spouting 
geysers of gases, of flaming cataracts and of other momentous 
things that are going on there — luckily at such a distance from 
us ! And these men speak of the sidereal world as if consid- 
ering a farm somewheres, of nebulous systems — thousands of 
millions of miles away — just as they might discuss a dinner 
menu ! And of ordinary days and years they wot not, for that 
is too infinitesimal, too commonplace. " Light Years" is the 
term by which they measure things celestial. Be it known that 
a " light year" is the distance in which light travels in space, 
sprinting at the rate of 186,300 miles a second — for one whole 
year ! Do you get that ? 

When we gaze upon the canopy above us on a clear night 
we may see, by ordinary eyesight, 5,000 stars. The sixty-inch 
mirror in the observatory at Mount Wilson will reveal to us 

507 



508 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



upwards of 200,000,000 
such light specks, called 
stars ! More, indeed, than 
man could ever count in a 
lifetime! In that velvet 
canopy they glimmer like 
dewdrops upon a spider's 
web of a sunny morning, 
and they seem just as 
small in their inconceiva- 
ble distances. Yet the as- 
tronomer tells us that 
these ' ' diamonds ' ' are tre- 
mendous bodies, moving 
in orderly procession in 
infinite space, perhaps 
thousands of miles — or 
more — a minute and thou- 
sands of millions of miles 
distant. Some there may 
be in that vast system, so 
far away that the light 
that emanated from them 
centuries ago has not yet reached us! They tell us that the 
Milky Way, which seems to the common vision like a hazy, 
illuminated band in the heavens, is a stream of stars — millions 
upon millions of them — rushing as in an avalanche to some 
preordained destination as yet hardly guessed. These are 
some of the little "sidereal" curiosities ! Let us not, however, 
wander too far into these fascinating realms lest we become 
lost in their confusing mazes. 

It was this interest in the heavens and their glories, and 
the desire for more perfect knowledge of them, that resulted 
in this renowned observatory on the summit of Mount Wilson 
— the greatest in the world. It began when E. F. Spence, a 
banker of Los Angeles, expressed to his friend, Professor 
Bovard, of the University of Southern California, the wish 
that he might provide a fund for the construction of a tele- 
scope, placing it on Mount Wilson or other satisfactory peak 
hereabouts. Spence said he would give $50,000 for this pur- 
pose, and in pursuance of it an order was placed with Alvan 
Clarke of Cambridge, Mass., for an instrument. Twelve thou- 




OBSERVATORY TOWER 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 509 

sand dollars was spent upon a glass. Meetings held in Pasa- 
dena for the purpose of raising money to build a road to the 
peak to assist in the enterprise did not produce much else 
except enthusiasm. There was plenty of that at a banquet 
given for this express purpose. Unhappily, E. F. Spence 
died without providing in his will, for the promised funds. 
Bovard also died, and then it was that Harvard University 
came to the fore and assisted. A sixteen-inch telescope was 
completed and in April, 1889, it was safely landed on Mount 
Wilson (a tablet marks the spot). On this occasion a commit- 
tee of Pasadena's leading men accompanied Professor Pick- 
ering of Harvard and Alvan Gr. Clarke, the manufacturer of 
the instrument, up to the summit. This peak was chosen for 
the telescope site through the influence of the toll road owners, 
and of C. S. Martin, who owned 160 acres of land embracing it. 
Forty acres, including the peak, were donated for the purpose, 
and on April 7th, 1892, it was duly christened " Mount Har- 
vard," in honor of its purpose, in the presence of a committee 
comprising Messrs. Magee, Martin, T. C. S. Lowe, Will S. 
Monroe, Walter Eaymond and others, upon which occasion 
Professor Eliot of Harvard delivered a fitting address. But 
alas for these ambitious gentlemen ! The glass, duly erected, 
was placed in charge of a careless astronomer, who oft found 
himself longing for the more entrancing scenes of Los Angeles 
than the bodies celestial that filled the circumambient air of 
Harvard Mountain, so there were many days of absence. But 
a record must be made every day; what then? Just a little 
entry of "Cloudy, no observation," that was all! But that 
settled Harvard Mountain as an observatory with those gen- 
tlemen, for so many "cloudy" days negatived its astronomical 
virtues, and in the end the glass was incontinently removed ! 

This story was told me as a fact, but the records show that 
Professor Pickering abandoned the site for following reasons : 

First. Difficulty in obtaining title to the land. 

Second. Difficulty in obtaining an adequate supply of 
water. (The Strain spring was not then developed.) 

Third. The large number of rattlesnakes that infested the 
region ! 

Then the Carnegie Institute at Washington decided to use 
some of its foundation funds in astronomical research. That 
institute, in 1903, sent out Prof. George E. Hale to make 



510 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

observations as to the conditions obtaining upon California 
peaks which fulfilled the best requirements for astronomical 
observations. The Snow telescope of the Yerkes Observatory 
of Chicago was loaned for this purpose. 

Freedom from earth vibrations, from atmospheric tremors 
and of extreme atmospheric clarity were the conditions 
demanded. At Mount Wilson, after a year's test, it was 
found these requirements were met as nowhere else, and it 
was then determined to make this spot the foundation of a 
great solar observatory. This was the more easily accom- 
plished by the grant to the institute of forty acres of land upon 
a jutting spur of the main summit by the Toll Koad Company, 
which owned considerable land thereabouts, as well as the 
trail leading to it. To W. R. Staats, president of the com- 
pany, much is due for this enterprise, then and afterwards, 
for a free right of way given over the toll road. But it was 
widened at an expense of $100,000 from the observatory funds 
to permit the conveyance of heavy and bulky instruments and 
supplies to the summit. 

Upon the selected site has been built the various observa- 
tory towers, domes, workshops and other addenda to the work 
involved; also residences for the observers and assistants — 
about sixty in all being there engaged. These include no less 
than seven telescopes — three refracting and four reflecting, 
the largest at present being the sixty-inch reflector. About 
1906, John D. Hooker of Los Angeles conceived the plan of 
building the largest and best telescope in the world and gave 
a large sum of money — said to have been $100,000 — for this 
purpose. A contract was let to the St. Gobain Glass Company 
of Paris, France, for the disk, and in due time, after exacting 
tests, it was cast and sent to the Pasadena laboratory for shap- 
ing, polishing and silvering. It required over four years for 
this work, which was performed under the personal direction 
of Professor Eitchey. This great glass weighs four and a 
half tons and is made of superimposed disks, probably as per- 
fect as is possible to make such a large one. This finished 
mirror, most carefully crated, was conveyed to its final desti- 
nation July 1st, 1917, and awaits in its telescope a near day 
when it will be ready to catch on its surface the fleeting images 
of stellar space. The extraordinary care that followed every 
step in the construction of the mirror was also observed in the 
construction of the machinery which operates it. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 511 

Its home is a monster steel dome 100 feet in diameter and 
more than 100 feet high. Here on its stable concrete pier, 
thirty-three feet above ground, firmly rests the steel skeleton 
cell which is attached to the lower end of the forty-five foot 
tube. The weight of the telescope is supported, mainly, in two 
large troughs of mercury, this arrangement being used to 
minimize friction, and also makes easy the adjustment of this 
heavy instrument, which weighs eighty tons. All this immense 
structure is adjustable by the mere pressing of a button, elec- 
tricity being the controlling power. 

It is not in place for me to describe in detail, the various 
instruments and their accessories used in these astronomical 
operations. The Snow horizontal telescope, more than 100 
feet in length, couching like a huge white dragon, the two big 
domes with their big reflectors, the sixty-foot tower, and the 
150-foot tower telescopes with their complicated machinery 
of lenses, mirrors, spectroscopes and cameras are the domi- 
nating features. In this latter tower Professor Ellerman has 
labored patiently for ten long years, photographing, charting 
and scrutinizing sun spots and other solar phenomena. And 
yet, in view of his purpose, the labor is but begun. To Messrs. 
Ellerman and Hoge and their willing courtesies I am indebted 
for opportunity of being able to write these things, and to 
them and others there will come the pleasures of good deeds 
performed when they, now and then, present the world of lay- 
men with a brand new star or a first-hand comet. Besides the 
instruments for observation are the dynamos — two of them 
furnish electrical power, soon to be superseded by a current 
sent over a cable from the Edison plant in Pasadena. There 
is the " Monastery,' ' the home of the unmarried and transient 
astronomers, the laboratory, and so on. Professor Hale, who 
presides over the destinies of this stargazing aggregation, is 
" honor man," and the astronomical world will expect much 
from his accomplished staff. 

Speaking casually of the work performed by these instru- 
ments it will be interesting to many to know something 
thereof. Many there are who believe the work of an astron- 
omer consists in looking at "the man in the moon," to see 
whether he has changed his usual long-established occupation, 
trying to find some overlooked individuals in Mars, or count- 
ing the sun spots to ascertain if any of them have escaped! 
No, this is far, from the truth. Astronomers, like others, 



512 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

indulge in speculation as to the origin of the earth and its 
sister planets, and other greater problems of the universe. 
And they form theories. But they do not halt in practical 
experiments and careful diagnosis; the obtained data; they 
go on and on. They use the spectrograph to analyze sun 
spots and discover their chemical composition ; and they have 
discovered that the sun contains iron, nickel, chromium and 
many other metals — usually in vaporous clouds ; of hydrogen 
in enormous volume, and of the behavior of these elements 
in certain circumstances. "Magnetic fields," in which posi- 
tive and negative "electrons" flourish and whirl in terrific 
storms, are also analyzed. And the spectrograph tells us of 
star velocities, and that our own star- — the Sun— is poking 
along at the modest rate of twelve miles each tick of the clock ! 
The influence of sun spots upon the weather is one of the 
studies now in hand, which may in time permit forecasts unob- 
tainable by present methods. Far be it from one of my humble 
astronomical attainments to enter into disputations as such 
problems as these ! 

The 100-Inch Mikkok 

The astronomical world has long looked forward with 
interest to the time when the 100-inch telescope would be ready 
to poke its nose into celestial regions and bring new messages 
from far off space. It is estimated that it will reveal to 
the observer 60 per cent more star inhabitants than can now 
be caught with the sixty-inch telescope. Approximately, this 
will mean the area of our unassisted vision is increased 250,- 
000 times; that 100,000,000 more stars will be caught in its 
field than is yielded to the sixty-inch reflector. Which means 
that by it we may con over 300,000,000 stars ! Perish the man 
who tries to count them! But if these numbers are compre- 
hensible, what can be said of distances ? As I remarked once 
before, a light year is so and so; in figures it is only 5,800,- 
000,000,000 miles ! Get that? Well, with the sixty-inch reflec- 
tor we can ' ' catch ' ' stars that are 45,000 light years distant ! 
That is ever so far away ; but wait ! With the 100-inch reflec- 
tor at Mount Wilson, it is expected that we may see stars 60 
per cent times more than 45,000 times the series of thirteen 
numerals above set down! No use whatever for the human 
mind to endeavor to comprehend the meaning of this enor- 
mous sum, or translate it into understanding, for it is impos- 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 513 

sible. The nearest expression — in mere words — is that it is 
420,000 trillion of miles, whatever that means. But be satis- 
fied, dear reader, that the telescope brings those stars to yon, 
for it is a long journey to them. Astronomers also expect that 
this telescope will solve some problems now in doubt. For in- 
stance, the star field of our universe " thins," it is said, in the 
remotest space now penetrated. This predicates a limit to it. 
This telescope may confirm this view, or it may reveal greater 
battalions of stars beyond ; moving in harmonious rhythm, in 
obedience to the edict of an irresistible power to their ultimate 
destiny. The star dust of the Milky Way, to us mere powdered 
light upon the sky, may be segregated into millions of revolv- 
ing suns and their true course understood. 

But we must leave further speculations to the busy men 
who ' ' live among the stars ' ' and whose activities also consist 
in photographing and classifying the inhabitants of infinity. 
Thousands of photographs and other useful records are 
annually made, classified and finally filed in vaults for study 
and permanent record — valuable beyond words. These are 
stored in the Pasadena laboratory, where are construction 
shops and opportunities for study. Here things are con- 
structed from metal, or glass, for all necessary accessories. 
Here is the study where Professors Hale, Adams, Ritchey 
and others compare, compute, measure and digest the results 
obtained in the skies, and diagnose them. Here the sum of 
human understanding, as applied by astronomers, is concen- 
trated, and Mount Wilson's $1,000,000 observatory made a 
thing of scientific usefulness. 




CHAPTER LIV 

The Canyon Teails 

THE HEART OP THE MOUNTAINS. THE JOYS OF THE ALPINE CLIMBER AND 
THE MYSTERIES OP CANYONS. 

Far, far from the City in these whispering aisles, 
Where Nature's fond wooing invites strolling feet, 

Where glimmering dewdrops acclaim fairy smiles, 
And wearying man finds restful retreat. 

HEEE are many people in Pasadena who have never 
been nearer the heart of the Sierra Madres than 
their own piazzas, or perhaps the platform of an 
Altadena car. Others may have ascended Mount 
Wilson or Mount Lowe by car line or autobus. 
These people know nothing of the joy that fills the man's or 
woman's heart, when, fittingly costumed, and with mental 
equipment attuned to the beauties in store, they take knapsack 
and staff and penetrate these fastnesses afoot, or on the deck 
of a well-trained horse, mule or burro. Viewing the moun- 
tains from Pasadena, hints at no such surprises as are in 
store; first, because of the unexpected vastness of some of 
their canyons, and second, because of their beauties. Miles 
and miles one may travel in some of them without reaching 
their limits or exhausting their attractions. Not always are 
their trails easily negotiated, for some require stiff exertion 
and practised climbing, but these obstacles are few, and when 
overcome the plodder will feel the thrill of accomplishment 
and the joy of exercise as felt in no other undertaking. 

The Arroyo Seco 

Perhaps most important to the welfare of Pasadena, and 
certainly also because of its natural attractions, is the Arroyo 
Seco. Important because through it comes the chief water 
supply consumed by the city of Pasadena. 

Its entrance is ominous, at least if one considers names. 
For we enter through the Devil's Gate, or just above it, and 
this formidable name might hint at forbidding abysses and 

514 . 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 515 

plutonic resorts. Instead, one is greeted by parks of beautiful 
live oaks and sycamores, and a hint of sylvan loveliness 
beyond. A good road, recently built, reaches for a mile or 
more into these glades and starts the traveler off with a good 
opinion of those who are responsible for it.* Beginning at 
the end of this road is the trail, and this the climber follows 
as it winds about precipitous acclivities, descending now and 
then to the arroyo bottom, and frequently crossing the stream 
which winds in its meandering course downward. The trail 
may dip and rise, and dip again, as it often does, but the 
general trend is always upward, as one may observe by the 
glimpses now and then afforded of peaks and "hog backs." 
Occasionally it leads to an open ridge whence the view is pic- 
turesque and inspiring — a serried array of forest clad moun- 
tains and canyons. In the blue above a vulture is suspended — 
a sentinel with a thousand eyes. All this while the traveler is 
passing through a forest of oak, alder, sycamore, willow and 
less important varieties of trees and underbush. Thus it con- 
tinues for several miles until Switzer's Camp is reached, its 
cabins and tents perched on dizzy but unique pedestals. Here 
is found shelter and food, the bubbling stream joining in the 
welcoming chorus that greets us. 

Switzer's Camp was started by one C. P. Switzer in 1884. 
Switzer had lived long in this county, was in poor health, and 
came to this spot to recuperate, taking up a government claim. 
Switzer sold his camp to Clarence Martin, who for several 
years, and until his death in 1908, conducted it and popular- 
ized it. 

Nearly all the way the stream is heard in low murmurs or 
louder paeans. A night of repose of Switzer's, a hearty break- 
fast, and off again in the morning, if so disposed. Onward 
then to Colby's, a few miles more amidst pines and firs, for 
these are mountain forests here. At Colby's a great and a 
grateful surprise, for we find fresh fruit, berries and vegeta- 
bles grown on the spot, welcome indeed to the hiker. 

On again, ascending now, over steeper trails and into more 
splendid arbors of pines, whose columnar trunks form deep, 
shaded aisles. Now and then a gray squirrel darts across 
the trail and up a tree trunk, to gaze down upon the intruder ; 



* This road was built in 1917 by the City Commissioners as a beginning — 
it is hoped, for a future mountain automobile highway into and across the 
range. 



516 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

or a chipmunk will scamper into the bushes with great alarm. 
These are welcome and pleasing diversions of the journey. 
The silences are becoming deeper, few birds are now seen and 
these have no greeting song, only a flutter or a shrill cry, and 
then are gone. 

Barley Flats is the next stopping place, an area of open 
space amidst crags and pines, where once it is said desperado 
and highwayman held forth merrily, as story books say they 
are wont to do. You are nearly 6,000 feet high here. This is 
a good place to tell a story, that might more fittingly have 
come earlier, but Barley Flats being the erstwhile bandit's 
home, I will relate it as told while resting by the camp fire 
here. 

The Stoey of the Bandit's Ghost 

Some years ago, while passing through the Arroyo Seco 
to Switzer's, I had pointed out to me what was said to be a 
cave where in early days a noted bandit had hid, when occasion 
demanded, and where much stolen gold was said, even now, to 
be buried. 

In the days when bandits flourished in these parts, Juan 
Flores was noted as one of the most desperate. He with his 
little band had many places of retreat, one of which was in the 
Arroyo Seco, near where now is Switzer's Camp, an ideal 
hiding spot. After a robbery of more than usual daring, the 
sheriff set out with a posse to capture Flores, who had with 
him his most trusted lieutenant, Amigo Rodriguez. The sher- 
iff's posse captured the bandit in Santiago Canyon — the Mod- 
jeska ranch — and hanged him unceremoniously, but Eodriguez 
escaped to Mexico upon a swift horse, where he kept quiet for 
a time. Later, with a trusted companion, he came back, 
secretly, informing his companion that in the Arroyo Seco 
retreat Flores had hidden gold and silver and other articles 
of much value which it was his intention to now retrieve. 
So, upon a fine moonlit night, these two proceeded into the 
canyon to where the plunder was cached — a fine, secluded 
place. Rodriguez had brought along a rope ladder, which he 
duly fastened to a projecting rock above a deep cleft or cave 
in which he said the treasure was stored. Bidding his com- 
panion keep guard, he took a pick and descended the ladder 
into the cavern below and was soon heard hard at work. 
Whether because of unusual winter rains or because the rock 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 517 

was loosened by digging, something happened. The guard 
afterwards said a spirit had suddenly appeared from the dark 
canyon beyond and commanded Rodriguez, in a loud tone, to 
cease operations. But the bandit paid no attention to this 
spirit — supposed to be the ghost of Flores, and worked away. 
Suddenly, with a loud crash, the earth crumbled and the rock 
caved in upon the helpless Eodriguez, who, emitting a piercing 
cry, was forever lost from view. The companion of the unfor- 
tunate man took to his heels, and halted not until he reached 
the Devil's Gate. Years afterward he told his story, but 
could never again be induced to enter the canyon to point out 
the precise spot where the cave was located. To this day no 
Mexican passes the outlaw's "cave" without a muttered invo- 
cation and making the sign of the cross. 

Deep into more secluded depths and lonesome silences 
where the sunlight never enters, and where peace profound 
exists ; not even a bird may utter a note in these retreats. 
Cooling breezes sweep down from yet cooler places, or from 
heights where hidden snows, the relics of a late winter, yet 
linger. 

We plod along, resting now and then to gaze about us 
impressed by the utter quiet that abounds. Even the sound 
of our own voices at times seem incongruous. But, advancing 
onward, we come to open spaces where deep shadows pale and 
give way to invading to cheering sunshine, which traces em- 
broideries of overhanging boughs on dusty trails; and we 
hear from afar the gleeful note of a songster from his vantage 
spot — a burnt treetop — relic of a former year fire. On and on 
our footsteps thread their way over trails carpeted with pine 
needles or on paths worn by other mountain climbers. 

From Barley Flats plunging once again into canyons, we 
may go higher still, and fine Pine Flats, or we may descend 
the canyon into the West Fork of the San Gabriel, where fine 
trout will afford sport and tasty dinner. The "West Fork" is 
the fisherman's Paradise. Here such Izaak Waltons as Joe 
Welsh, John McDonald, Joe Blick or Walter Wotkyns, seek 
the joys of that most alluring of piscatorial emprize — the 
mountain trout. Afterwards, the hospitalities of the Bait Club 
larders offer surcease to hunger's cravings, and a pair of 
blankets later, temptation for wearied bodies. 

The San Gabriel Canyon-, where we have arrived at the 
end of a fifty-mile journey, like the river of its name, is the 



518 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

largest in this range. Many streams feed the San Gabriel 
Eiver and aid its terrific torrent in winter — principally its 
North Fork and Bear Creek. The Big Tejunga Creek — far- 
ther westward — and the streams that feed it, empty into the 
Los Angeles Eiver, but these do not directly concern our nar- 
rative. 

The smaller tributaries of the Arroyo Seco flow from such 
canyons as Negro, and Brown's — so named from the sons of 
John Brown of Ossawattomie, who once lived in a little cabin 
near by. Cottonwood, wild oak and some others of lesser sig- 
nificance also debouch upon the Arroy Seco. It is a glorious 
journey to the lover of the primitive, and it is filled with happy 
surprises. It is not seriously difficult at any place even to 
the novice properly accoutered, which means with suitable 
light clothing, and boots with nails made for holding the feet 
from slipping on the steeper ascents. 

Squirrels now and then scamper away from the disturbing 
invader and jays sometimes offer shrill protest from branches 
above. These are but happy reminders that the world is far 
away, and its cares outside. Now and then crystal streams 
come bubbling from secluded channels and go singing in quest 
of new ventures, or gush in milky foam through restraining 
gorge falling in musical cascades into deep, boiling cauldrons 
below. Here the stream — 

In caves where ghostly quiet dwells, 

Frolics along on its merry way 
Through bosky nooks and shady dells, 

Sings merrily, its roundelay. 

Or, winding 'neath green canopies — 

Of ferns and grasses, deep and cool, 
It journeys on to distant seas 

With farewell to each friendly pool. 

About these pools and in shaded nooks dwell in profligate 
abundance, luxurious ferns of gorgeous size and beauty — the 
envy of the garden maker. Sometimes one may catch the 
flutter of wings, the mad gyrations of a feathered dweller, 
the water ousel, enjoying the ecstasy of a bath in the falling 
stream. 

But there is here the impressive quiet, the calmness of 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 519 

nature, amidst groves whose seed were sown before the 
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth; or perhaps when Omar sang. 

From the depths of these canyons one may gaze into the 
azure skies above and easily discern — even at high noon — 
stars, trembling in their crystalline depths ! 

But night comes with welcome to tired pedestrian, and 
camp, with its comforts and its delights is in store. First a 
roaring fire, of resinous pine branches or fallen cones, to 
bring comfort and good cheer; for night brings its chill in 
these elevations. A goodly supper, a pipe for solace, and 
a raconteur with happy wit. The balsamic odor of the pine, 
the mysterious whisperings that the woods always bring with 
night, but accent the cheer and comfort that comes with a 
well made camp. No fear of rains here in summer — no 
beastly foe lurks in the blackness there, to disturb the fearful. 
Only the twitter of some restless bird, the stir of a peering 
squirrel on its aerial perch above. Betimes comes the call 
of slumber; then, with blankets rolled about each form, and 
caps pulled over the ears, with feet toward the renewed fire, 
and a pillow of moss, perhaps, Morpheus finds willing sub- 
jects, and slumber comes quickly, bringing dreams that are 
auguries of happy tomorrows. The squirrel keeps keen eyed 
vigil ; and gentle breezes blow with soothing cadences through 
the giant trees. Pan gets his pipes and plays soothing lulla- 
bys, while pixies and forest gnomes, in wonder peep from 
the lurking shadows upon these sleeping giants whose nasal 
threnodies send strange echoes through sentinel pines. But 
morning comes ; and — 

Away beyond the eastern hills, 

From yonder waking skies, 
The day, its glowing banners fling 

And opes its glorious eyes. 

No yawnings of discontent, no reluctant limbs, but lungs 
filled with ozone and minds alert and exultant, ready for 
another day's adventure! 

Winter, too, has its allurements in these mountains; for 
it seems, that the man from the snowy places cannot forget 
the invitations of the Eastern winter and its pastimes. So 
here — when the winter storms on high places bring their 
tribute of snow, these fascinations call them; and then the 
West is the East, with the joys thereof! 



520 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Millakd's Canyon 

Other canyons there are, that invite invasion by mountain 
lover and camper ; Millards being one of the largest. Millards 
Canyon lies almost directly north of Pasadena and is access- 
ible by a good road even far into its capacious depths. In 
1874 the Griddings family purchased a large body of land 
lying at the entrance of this canyon, and obtained therewith 
rights to it and its waters. A mile or more within the canyon, 
one comes to the falls, a splendid body of water dropping in 
noisy turbulence from a height of fifty-eight feet. The La 
Vina Sanatorium Co. purchased this property some years 
ago and maintain near it, but outside in the sunshine, an 
establishment for the treatment of tuberculous diseases. Dr. 
H. B. Stehman has this establishment in charge, and devotes 
much of his personal time and attention to the philanthropy, 
for it is conducted under philanthropic conditions and is sus- 
tained partly by benefactions. 

Rubio 

The approach to Mt. Lowe is through Eubio Canyon, a 
cleft in the range extending to Echo Mountain. Old man 
Rubio, once resident owner in this canyon, would gape in 
awe did he return from Shadowland and revisit his old haunts. 
Rubio Canyon belongs to the railway enterprise which occu- 
pies it and is, in effect, private property. 

Eatons (Pkecipicio) 

This canyon, named in honor of Judge Eaton who owned 
the Fair Oaks ranch at its portals, is a wide cleavage with 
precipitous sides almost unachievable, yet it was selected as 
the proper place in which to build a mountain road with Mt. 
Wilson its terminus. Originally a trail, wide enough for a 
man or sure footed animal, it was made more desirable by 
further widening and improving. When the observatory was 
established this trail was again widened sufficiently for an 
autobus which is in daily service over it. The beginning of 
this road was, originally, on the east side of the canyon, but 
this was changed with the building of the toll road, and now 
starts on its west side, just northeast of Altadena. 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 521 

Big and Little Santa Anita Canyons 

Eastward of Eatons Canyon and opening north of Sierra 
Madre, are the Big and Little Santa Anita Canyons, access- 
ible by a good trail, inviting retreats for snmmer campers with 
whom they have become popular. The trail known as Sturte- 
vants skirts the big Santa Anita and gives access to it; this 
trail is known as the "old" trail — the original trail to Mt. 
Wilson, and offers access to many camping resorts and camp- 
ing spots en route. Fern Lodge, Roberts, Hoegees and Stur- 
tevants, being the best known. This trail also leads to the 
west fork of the San Gabriel River and many miles farther 
still. The little Santa Anita also begins at Sierra Madre and 
is another charming retreat. Carter's Camp is a noted resort 
in this canyon. 

Mount Wilson 

Mention has been frequently made of Mount Wilson, and 
especially in connection with the great solar observatory which 
is established there. As a fact, this observatory is included in 
about forty acres of a spur jutting from Mount Wilson proper, 
but accessible from it quite easily. Mount Wilson has always 
been regarded by the Pasadenan with particular interest and 
attachment for various reasons, chief of these — beyond its 
scientific interest — is that Pasadena men, all well known and 
active in its affairs, did those things that brought about this 
popularity and maintained it, and it is interesting to this 
history to recount some of these achievements. 

In the very early days, and in fact ten years prior to the 
establishment of the Indiana Colony, B. D. Wilson began the 
construction of the first trail to this peak, and by this act con- 
ferred his own name upon it. This was in 1864. In that year 
a good trail was made about half way to the summit, and from 
this point a bridle path led to the top. Wilson used the trail 
for the purpose of bringing down shingles which were made 
from the timber there. To Clarence S. Martin much credit 
is due for the further opening up of the Wilson trail and its 
subsequent popularity. Martin was a lover of the mountains 
and obtained a timber claim on the Mount Wilson slopes about 
1887. Becoming imbued with the belief that this mountain 
would become a popular resort for campers if made accessible, 
he interested others with his enthusiasm. Among these were 
R. Williams and John W. Vandevoort. Vandevoort took up 



522 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

a timber claim, as did Martin, and in this way controlled 
access to the summit. From this interest grew the toll road 
idea, and in 1889 — on July 12th of that year — was incorpo- 
rated the " Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road Company. , ' 

Besides Martin, J. A. Buchanan, George F. Kernaghan, 
P. M. Green, M. E. Wood, H. H. Rose and some others were 
stockholders in the project. A right of way was secured, and 
Col. J. E. Place, an ex-United States army engineer of much 
ability, was engaged to make surveys, plans, etc. But for some 
reason little progress was made at the time and the scheme 
became moribund. But in 1890 it was revived, with Messrs. 
Kernaghan, Martin, John W. and Robert Vandevoort and 
George Greeley sole stockholders. Colonel Place having been 
appointed city engineer, J. N. Sedwick was employed to carry 
out the Place plans, and work was begun upon the new trail. 
"Tom" Banbury was the contractor and he finished his con- 
tract in a year, building a good trail nine and one-eighth miles 
long and from four to eight feet wide, having a grade of not 
exceeding 10 per cent, with an occasional exception. The trail 
was made a toll road and was managed under Kernaghan 's 
supervision for a time. George Greeley was in charge of the 
horses, mules and burros that were used for carrying "passen- 
gers" and supplies to the camp above. This camp was con- 
ducted by A. G. Strain. H. W. Magee succeeded Kernaghan 
in 1891, Kernaghan resigning as president of the company. 

C. S. Martin, about 1895, established a camp about one 
mile below the summit of Mount Wilson and took charge of it 
personally. Having many friends hereabout, and giving care- 
ful attention to his guests, he acquired for his camp much 
popularity and profitable patronage. This camp was con- 
tinued until Martin sold his interests to the new company, 
which was headed at this time by W. R. Staats. Martin's 
camp was finally abandoned and its main buildings afterwards 
destroyed by fire. The present toll road company was organ- 
ized by W. R. Staats, J. H. Holmes and W. S. Wright, and 
this company built the present fine wagon road, which is one 
of the most picturesque mountain drives in California, easily 
negotiable by auto and perfectly safe. 

At the summit many cottages have been built, also a good 
dining room and office, which afford an attractive retreat, 
where the beauties of the mountains and perfect climatic con- 
ditions are to be found right at Pasadena's doors — but two 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 523 

hours away! This camp is at present in charge of Mr. and 
Mrs. W. E. Corey, competent caterers to the comfort of their 
guests. 

One of the splendid sights from this peak is a view from it 
at night, when the electric lights of the San Gabriel Valley are 
turned on. 

Pasadena's Camping Gbound 

That Pasadena should annex an area of this natural park 
for its own uses, is the opinion of many who have studied the 
question of affording to people an opportunity, such as here 
presents itself — convenient summer camping facilities. 
George A. Damon, former dean of Throop College, is one of 
these enthusiasts, and even now has acquired from the United 
States Government an extensive domain of his own in the 
Santa Anita Canyon. Damon believes that arrangements 
could be made with the Government to this end, if protective 
provisions were made a strict condition. Also, an auto road 
that will begin in the Arroyo Seco and thence to the top of 
the range, running along the crest to San Gabriel Canyon, 
and down that to its outlet near Azusa, would prove to be a 
road of extraordinary scenic beauty. With such an attraction 
the 300,000 visitors who now annually visit these particular 
mountains would double in number, and the range become 
what it should be — the pleasure-ground of Southern Cali- 
fornia. This road is one of the future probabilities which the 
scenic lover looks forward to with enthusiasm. 

Gold and silver have been discovered at various places in 
the Sierra Madres, but never in quantities, in recent years at 
least, sufficient to induce a "rush" or create a sensation. In 
the San Gabriel Canyon "color" has been struck in many 
places, and even now local prospectors are working some 
placers there with fair success. In the Big Tejunga the first 
gold ever found in California was discovered, and considerable 
taken out. This was in 1843, but for some reason it created 
little attention, and not until John Marshall made his discov- 
ery at Sutter Creek did the California Midas call resound 
about the world. It is asserted that the padres of San Gabriel 
mined gold in the Tejunga many years before this, however. 
The legend runs that this was done secretly, to keep its exist- 
ence unknown from the world at large and prevent an influx 
of " gringos.' ' 




CHAPTEE LV 

The Bainfall and the Seasons — Climate 

|HEN does one season end and the other begin in Cali- 
fornia? The calendar is a better indicator of the 
seasons in California than is the weather itself. 
In the East, spring is nshered in with gentle breath 
and soft caressing moods — sometimes ! That is, 
when really started. Summer there, brings its humid heat — 
its fervid days and sweltering nights. Winter its shroud of 
snow, its icy landscape. But here — in Southern California — 
one season merges into another, almost unheeded, or unre- 
marked by sharp contrast. We glance at the trees; most of 
them are green, always ; the lawns are velvet robes ; the skies 
are azure canopies of miraculous softness. In summer some- 
times, there may be call for extra covering to make sleeping 
comfortable ; and midwinter finds the brown fields of summer 
decked with lush wild grasses and starry blossoms. Note the 
thermometer! In winter it may score 80 — at times — and 
drive the sensitive to the shady side of the street or to the 
cool side of the piazza. In summer it may descend to 50. 
Just when spring should come with her caressing touch we 
must consult the calendar to discover, for with the fall and 
winter rains grass begins to grow on plains and mesa, and 
soon a magic carpet unfolds upon which is spilled an embroid- 
ery of gay-hued wild flowers, baby blue eyes, poppies rich 
with burnished copper and gold, buttercups with fresh washed 
and glistening faces, and marvelous oceans of yellow mustard 
like seas of sunshine. Who that sees this carpet unfold its 
miraculous treasures of color can say, after all, which is the 
better season in Southern California? As a rigid fact, South- 
ern California has but two seasons — summer and winter, the 
"dry" and the "wet" seasons. These terms are the distin- 
guishing lines of demarcation. Observe the rain chart. From 
October to May the rain falls at intervals. After May — to 
October or November — it is a rarity or not at all ; there may 
be a trifle from desert clouds that are pushed over the summits 
of the mountains and give out a reluctant shower — a taste, but 
no more. 

524 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 525 

The summers are a series of cloudless days, with occa- 
sional exceptions; then heavy fogs creep over the land and 
pay welcome calls. Now and then huge masses of snowy 
billows rise from distant deserts, expand high above the moun- 
tain barriers and spread their canopies, even over Pasadena. 
From these canopies may come some rain, seldom more than 
a sprinkle. Again, these clouds, day after day, will rise 
majestically, unfolding their snowy wings, but never come 
near. In their depths may sometimes be seen vivid lightning 
flashes, followed by the deep rumble of heavenly artillery. In 
remote canyons will fall sudden deluges of water which come 
sweeping in turbulent streams towards their outlets below. 
On summer evenings there may be a lacy scarf of clouds that 
will hang in festoons from the mountain breasts or cling to 
mountain peaks. As the sun goes down these gossamer clouds 
condense into heavier waves that assemble in deep masses 
as the night chill condenses them. The setting sun shines 
through them in blood-red rose or burnished gold, producing 
gorgeous cloud effects. 

As summer grows apace, the emerald fields that were once 
barley, wheat or oats, are harvested, and the ground lies yel- 
low or brown. A haze is in the air, as if an impalpable dust 
had been sprinkled upon the world and hung suspended — a 
golden mist. Looking from mountain coigns of vantage, these 
fields are giant squares set between verdant fields of 
alfalfa or perpetual green orchards. The mountains rise 
against the infinite sky — immovable and eternal. In their 
canyons is heard the melodies of tinkling waters and the sigh- 
ing of soft breezes ; behind these bulwarks lie panting deserts 
and illusive mirages, where the quavering sands radiate shim- 
mering heat waves, and the lizard lies panting under sun- 
blistered rocks where — 

Mocking horizon, with gleaming mirrored edge — 
A pleasing phantasy of sweetly purling streams : 
A mimicry of fevered dreams, 

A beckoning shadow with death its certain pledge. 

The "wet" season, or winter, begins usually in October or 
November. A few hours or a day or two of rainfall — from a 
sprinkle to an inch or more, and winter is on — the California 
kind. Then soon follow the glorious sunny days that bring 



526 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

forth in magical response, the green grass and the flowers that 
will adorn valley and hillside. Follow more rains, soaking 
rains — it is hoped — to enable the tiller of the soil to get busy 
with plow and cultivator ; for now is the time to prepare for 
planting grain — wheat, barley or other seed crops. Now, too, 
is the ground prepared for tree planting; orchards, to be a 
success, must have the ground carefully plowed and the soil 
finely pulverized. From the first rain until December, repeti- 
tions of it are hoped for in plenty. The snows that fall on 
the peaks are the reservoirs which store up irrigating supplies 
for the following summer. Hence the value of such mountains 
as Mount Wilson, Mount Lowe, "Baldy," and even the distant 
San Gorgonio and San Jacinto's summits to us, for though 
many miles away, it is believed that these more distant sum- 
mits, too, contribute to the supply of Pasadena's underground 
streams. And this is winter! Winter, with some wet days, 
alternated with many brilliant ones, when the rain-washed air 
sparkles and sings with health and promise. 

The winter merges into summer, with May — the " month 
of fogs" — intervening; then June; and it is summer! The 
blossoms turn into fruit, the fruit mellows and ripens into 
luscious bits for epicures, under the perfecting sunshine. No 
"Indian summer" to merge the seasons and prepare for the 
death of summer and its glories. The amber sunshine, the 
brown stubble field here and there, and the dwindling arroyos 
point to another epoch in seasons, which the calendar denomi- 
nates "Autumn." The skies are cloudless, the thirsty earth 
cries for water. Where man has brought down the pellucid 
streams from mountain canyons and spread it upon the 
parched earth, there the blossoming trees and luxuriant foli- 
age repay him. 

But do not imagine a "rainless" summer as one filled with 
the serious annoyances and forebodings of an Eastern dry 
summer. Southern California is prepared for the natural 
conditions which prevail. Irrigation is practised where neces- 
sary, and trees and shrubbery planted that accord with the 
controlling conditions ; that is, the evergreen varieties prevail. 
So, contrary to uninformed expectation, the hills and valleys 
are not barren wastes, but attractive groves and fields, with 
the brown and yellow of harvested fields pleasing interludes 
in the perspective. The summer atmosphere, too, seems a 
compensation, for some lack — if one may so conceive it — in 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



527 



other ways. The mountains seem, if possible, more lovely and 
the skies more intimate and alluring. Until July, or even 
August, stretches of untilled land are covered with wild mus- 
tard, gorgeous in its brilliant yellow, and the many wild flow- 
ers which survive. Altogether there is a charm, a fascination 
about the summer of California which grows and enthralls 
year by year and is a lodestone which holds the allegiance and 
affections. No worry of rainless skies disturb through the long 
dry period from June to November. In the history of Pasa- 
dena few notable exceptions have been experienced that dif- 
ferentiate from the normal seasonal records. The winter of 
1883-84, however, brought torrential rains and made a new 
record — since the Gringo came, at least. From the normal 
average in the preceding years of less than twenty inches, that 
phenomenal season made a new one with forty-eight inches of 
rainfall (in Pasadena). Weather prophets had predicted a 
"dry" winter, too, which may have influenced Jupiter Plu- 
vius ! Nothing unusual occurred until late in January, when 
the clouds began to spill and the "oldest inhabitant" was 
driven to expedients to explain about it, and the wherefore of 




VERY RARE EVENT. SNOW STORM JUNE 13, 1885 
Central School, Fair Oaks and Colorado Sts. 
Rev. Fisk and Ben Ward in foreground ] 



528 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

it. It would not stop ! The entire San Gabriel Valley was sub- 
merged, and travel was suspended over the Southern Pacific 
there, for more than an entire week, in February. New chan- 
nels were formed for the San Gabriel River in several places, 
much damage being done about the El Monte section. Many 
bridges were destroyed, and numerous small houses swept 
from their foundations and engulfed in the shifting sands 
of the stream. The Arroyo Seco was a raging torrent from 
bank to bank; the sluggish little stream of a few feet wide, 
normally, became an irresistible current several hundred feet 
wide, carrying with it a noisy collection of grinding cobble- 
stones, uprootted trees and tons of soil from its sloughing 
sides. A team of horses and driver, attempting to ford the 
Arroyo near Garvanza, were swept into the current and man 
and horses drowned. It was a record storm, or rather a con- 
tinuous series of them, lasting from January to April, with 
little intermission ; and even May and June experiencing some 
extra showers. The old-timer will not forget this "wet win- 
ter" of 1883-84. 

Again, in 1886, came a deluge which was only second to 
its predecessor. Thirty-eight inches was the record. The 
San Gabriel Valley Railroad experienced much damage to its 
equipment. The depot at Downey Avenue, Los Angeles, was 
washed from its foundations into the Arroyo, the office safe, 
buried in its sands, was not recovered for a week. There have 
been some phenomenal rainfalls since the years quoted, but 
no prolonged periods such as they were. Such a storm now, 
as in 1884, would be noticeable, but would not be serious — 
because better protection from excessive floods now exist to 
take care of them. There have been abnormal "dry" years 
as well as abnormal wet ones. The winter 1876-77 was one 
of these, and the worst known since white men came to this 
country. In that season less than five inches of rain fell dur- 
ing the entire "winter" season of five months. The result 
was disastrous to the cattle and sheep industry, which was the 
leading one of Southern California then. Thousands of cat- 
tle, horses and sheep perished for lack of pasturage, and it is 
related that owners drove flocks and herds into the sea, pre- 
ferring that they perish in this way rather than by slow 
starvation. Some stockmen were financially ruined that 
memorable year. But systematic irrigation makes the farmer 
and fruit grower independent of a single season's rainfall; 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 529 

for, although, subnormal rain averages reduces the irrigating 
supply from wells and streams, one need scarce fear two 
" short' ' rainfall seasons in succession. Of course, grain fields 
are seldom irrigated and must depend upon the rainfall for 
their success. 

It is thus seen that Southern California has its variety of 
climatic conditions and occurrences, so far as relates to rain- 
fall, snow and hail, thunder and lightning. And I may men- 
tion exceptional "cold spells' ' that have at times done damage 
to fruit crops and vegetable farms. Most notable of these 
occurred in January, 1913, when the extraordinary low tem- 
perature of 12 degrees Fahrenheit was reached in some parts 
of Southern California, doing much damage to the citrus crop 
— reaching perhaps $20,000,000 in and about the San Gabriel 
Valley alone. That was the coldest weather recorded in South- 
ern California valleys. Since then citrus fruit growers have 
amply prepared themselves against a recurrence of this 
danger by smudging and heating apparatus in their groves. 

The weather prophet is indigenous to any country or any 
community. He has been a prominent incident to Pasadena 's 
early life, for then more dependency was placed upon season- 
able rains because large areas were yet unirrigated. Very 
early rains in September or October were ominous, in the 
opinion of old residents, because they portended a "dry" 
winter, i. e., one with less than normal rainfall. This is not 
quite proven by rainfall records, but apprehension was justi- 
fied to this extent — early heavy rains started forage grasses 
into life, the burr clover seed, which was waiting for just this 
excuse, sprouted and began to thrive. Now, if no further 
rains came within a month or so, this clover and other shallow- 
rooted grasses sickened and died before the normal rains came 
to succor them. In my own experience of thirty-five years in 
Southern California, there have not been over three seasons 
when this calamity occurred to an appreciable extent. 

There have been weather prophets whose prognostications 
were depended upon more than their correctness entitled them 
to. A man named Potts of Los Angeles was one of those, and 
Prophet Potts for many years gave forth his delphic utter- 
ances with gusto and gravity. Now and again they hit the 
mark and saved his reputation. 

Some years since a young man named Hatfield attained 
some notoriety by claiming to be able to make it rain at will ; 

34 



530 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

at least in the rainy season. Pasadena had had a "dry" win- 
ter, and a second one below normal, and was somewhat appre- 
hensive. Hatfield offered to guarantee eighteen inches of 
rain for the sum of $3,000 — no rain, no money. He went so 
far as to build him a tall wooden tower on the Altadena mesa, 
where he installed himself, just waiting for the $3,000, to begin 
his incantations. But the Board of Trade directors, to whom 
his proposition was submitted, were sufficiently skeptical to 
refuse his offer, so he moved his " stack' ' to a more confiding 
field and found it in Santa Barbara, where his bid was 
accepted and won ! for it actually rained the required amount 
— by happy circumstance — as it also did in Pasadena. 

The man who found water with the hazel rod was also in 
evidence. He was one "Doctor" Crandall, and was employed 
by certain persons in Pasadena to "find water"; in other 
words, tell them where to dig a well successfully. I must say 
for the good Doctor that he is responsible for locating the 
so-called Franklin Street well and also a well for J. W. Hugus 
on his East Altadena ranch. The little hazel stick employed by 
Crandall, it was said, would deflect earthward when in the 
vicinity of an underground stream. I merely relate what I 
have been informed about this necromancy. It is an old 
practice. 

Dr. Thomas Rigg — father of T. J. Rigg, now living in 
Pasadena — was a weather observer, and for a long time kept 
rain records of early days. Thomas Nelmes was another who 
was also a useful weather observer. Prior to 1882 Henry G. 
Bennett kept a record valuable as reference now. 

Harold Channing was the first semi ' ' official ' ' Government 
observer and record keeper, being authorized by the United 
States Government bureau. The records were later officially 
kept by Edwin Sorver, secretary of the Board of Trade, and 
now by E. P. Hamlin of the city engineer's office. 

Eakthquakes 

The average Californian treats earthquakes with a smile 
and a careless jest, yet several instances of damage that were 
quite serious have occurred in Southern California. My read- 
ers will recall the earthquake referred to in the history of the 
Mission San Gabriel, as recounted in these pages, and which 
badly damaged that mission. Again, in 1812, the Mission San 
Juan Capistrano was almost demolished one Sunday morning 



Fin 

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PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 531 



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532 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

when filled with worshipers, many of them being killed. Mor- 
ris Newmark's "Memoirs" speak of an earthquake in 1855 
which destroyed adobe houses and other buildings whose walls 
were four feet in thickness. On this occasion the "ground 
rose like ocean billows" in many places, leaving great chasms 
in the earth. Doubtless much damage would have been done 
and many lives lost had the country been more settled and 
built upon. Newmark mentions another severe shock, or 
tremblor, that shook up terra firma in 1857, destroying adobe 
houses, knocking down trees and producing a tidal wave in 
the ocean that was observed at several places between Los 
Angeles and San Francisco. Of late years no notable shocks 
have been experienced in Southern California, the extraor- 
dinary one in San Francisco in 1908 scarcely being felt here. 
Few years pass without one or more slight disturbances, 
which receive little attention and produce no apprehension to 
the older residents. Geologists aver that Southern California 
has little or no reason to fear severe earthquakes, as the earth 
here has no ' ' faults, ' ' having become ' ' settled. ' ' I leave this 
question to geological experts and earthquake sharps. 

Climate — Some Remakks About the Thekmometek 

Climate! That has been the magic talisman which has 
drawn to Pasadena its hosts of home builders, tourists and 
health seekers! It is the one topic that every loyal citizen 
likes to discuss. If it is exceptionally cool at times, his apolo- 
gies go out spontaneously and explanatorily. If it gets hot — 
sometimes — there is also an explanation ready at hand that 
satisfies himself, at least. And if it rains a few inches more 
than normal, this "unusual" condition is also susceptible of 
debate and satisfactory disposal — off hand. Some one has 
truthfully said that California has as many climates as she 
has horizons. A statement literally true, as anyone may 
prove by migrating from place to place, from desert to hill, 
from hill to valley, and from valley to mountain top, all in 
one season. For he may certainly, in this vagabondism, find 
all extremes of weather within the bounds of his state. But 
confining ourselves to our own local environment, it can be 
asserted that few places equal it in the allurements it holds for 
those seeking a climate that possesses no rigorous extremes, 
and embraces that happy medium so much sought after by all 
who seek the ideal spot to cast their fortunes. True, there 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 533 

are unpleasant days now and then, when the carping critic 
with a grouch sees fit to grumble; but which, compared with 
a real " unpleasant " day as such may be designated in the far 
away home of "back East," are really hardly worth mention- 
ing. Sometimes it may even freeze a thin scum of ice upon a 
standing water pail, over night^-in the "unusual" winter 
periods; but the morning, with its splendid, sparkling sun- 
shine, soon dissipates any hint of a forgetful thermometer. 
Or, again, the mercury may rise to an exceptional height on 
the noon of a summer day, but when the sun sinks below the 
rim of yonder Pacific the cooling breeze shortly, brings grate- 
ful change to last the night through. For there are no humid, 
exhausting, sultry days, or nights, in Pasadena — the dry 
atmosphere obviates that. Why, may be asked, is this so and 
"Prove it," says the doubter. The great Constructor of 
worlds provided the conditions for our comfort in Pasadena. 
This Creator, in arranging things, erected the great mountain 
range to the north and to the east — a mile in height — as a bar- 
rier between the ocean on the west and the desert on the north. 
And these mountains have been our most beneficent defender 
and gracious provider of climate. Pasadena lies at the west 
end of the San Gabriel Valley, elevated above its level from 
500 to 600 feet, and above the ocean level 850 to 1,000 feet. 
The ocean is twenty-five miles to the west. Thus we have, in 
physical conformation, an ideal situation, furnishing us the 
"weather" we need. During the summer days the winds pre- 
vail from the ocean — gentle and full of stimulus — never harsh 
or boisterous. When the desert yonder beyond the mountains 
grows hot, the cooling breezes of the ocean are drawn across 
us, over the mountain peaks, and to the desert beyond ; there 
to equalize the over-heated temperature in that region. These 
breezes are never cold because they gather and sweep the sur- 
face of many thousand miles of ocean where the temperature 
is only 55 degrees Fahrenheit on an average. Again, with the 
coming of the night, and the absorption of the ocean winds, the 
desert cools off and the breezes again — now dry and tempered 
— restore the equilibrium by returning to the ocean which gave 
them up during the day. It is these air currents, constantly 
moving back and forth, which stabilizes the climate of South- 
ern California and prevents extended spells of hot weather 
during the long rainless summer. The mountain barriers also 
prevent, except very rarely, rapid currents of air, or "high 



534 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

winds." Seduced to figures, Pasadena's average mean tem- 
perature by months, estimated for the past thirty years, is as 
follows: January, 53 degrees; February, 54; March, 56; 
April, 59 ; May, 63 ; June, 67 ; July, 72 ; August, 74 ; September, 
71 ; October, 64 ; November, 60 ; and December, 54. The mean 
daily range is from twenty to twenty-five degrees. The lowest 
temperature recorded in Pasadena was twenty-two degrees 
above zero — on two known occasions — each before sunrise. 
The temperature at noon on the same days was over forty de- 
grees. Snow has been known to fall and remain on the ground 
an hour or more, twice since the founding of Pasadena, al- 
though it frequently has fallen low down on the mountain 
ranges and at their feet occasionally. On June 13th, 1885, the 
heaviest snowstorm — (it was in fact mixed with hail) — known 
in Pasadena was occasioned by a "return" storm cloud blown 
in from the Pacific. It hailed, rained, snowed and lightninged 
for an hour, giving the inhabitants a taste of a March day in 
the East. Boreas got tangled up in his almanac and also his 
geography that day, surprising Pasadena, as he also delighted 
everybody, with reminders of "back home." Sleighs were 
hastily extemporized from dry goods boxes or what not, and 
the excited young folks hitched up astounded steeds and west 
"sleigh" riding. Charley Bell captured the Banbury twins 
and made the village ring with hilarity. "Pop" Fisk and Ben 
Ward also became cut-ups and forgot all dignity. No one was 
too old, or too sedate, to join the fun, and if not sledding, was 
snowballing. But in a few hours little trace of the weather 
man's error remained except in happy memory, for the rarity 
of snow in Pasadena's streets makes its presence the more 
welcome, and the call of youthful delights brings joyousness 
unconfined. Of course, there is plenty of snow in winter upon 
all of the high mountain ranges everywhere in California, and 
upon the highest peaks like San Antonio, San Bernardino or 
San Jacinto. It is claimed that a glacier exists on "Baldy's" 
peak, but scientific men have not corroborated this. 

Now and then, too, it thunders, and lightning flashes. A 
prominent Pasadena business man, to-wit, F. R. Harris, on 
one occasion lost his reputation for veracity in this way. He 
had lived here for six years — this was many years ago — and 
was one day in the act of making a sale to a lady customer, 
who remarked, "Well, if I was in the East I would say we 
were going to have a thunderstorm." "Oh, no," replied 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 535 

Fred, "we never have thunderstorms here!" At the very 
moment there came a brilliant flash of lightning, accompanied 
with a terrible crash of thunder, startling them both into 
speechless amazement. It was a whole minute before the lady 
recovered from her alarm ; then, turning to the disconcerted 
merchant, said, "Oh, I see you don't." It required consid- 
erable explaining for Fred to square himself from the sus- 
picion that he was just a plain California liar. But this was 
his first experience with a California thunderstorm. 

Strictly speaking, almost any spring a storm cloud, by 
sudden reversal of the wind, may bring in from the sea a 
storm, with dropping temperature, and with it lightning and 
thunder, and usually hail, as a musical accompaniment. These 
storms, while bringing heavy rainfall, are short lived. Only 
on two occasions has lightning struck in Pasadena, one of 
these when a hay barn was struck (on the occasion referred 
to in the Harris store), and once when a church in North 
Pasadena was struck. On two or three occasions violent 
windstorms have been known since the founding of the Col- 
ony. The most serious occurred in 1887, and another Decem- 
ber 10th and 11th, 1891. The last was memorable and occa- 
sioned considerable damage, chief of which was blowing down 
the steeple of the Presbyterian Church and blowing over the 
bell tower of the Methodist Church, which, falling upon the 
roof of a house, caved it in. The same storm wrecked the 
Christian Church, a small structure not very substantially 
built ; also totally wrecking the North Congregational Church, 
an unsubstantial structure; wrecking a laundry, a two-story 
house, and half dozen other small "California" style build- 
ings. Besides this, many roofs were blown off, and especially 
the tin roof of the Arcade Block and of Williams Hall and the 
Frost Building. A small building on Colorado Street was 
blown down, killing a horse. This was a remarkable storm 
for this section, the most disastrous known, and yet if com- 
pared with those occurring in the Middle West, or on the 
Atlantic Coast, it was not extraordinary. For the velocity of 
this wind at no time — and it blew all night — did not exceed 
about sixty miles per hour, which is but "gale" speed, not 
even "hurricane." Notwithstanding, the inhabitants, when 
they began to take stock next morning, were both amazed and 
disheartened when they viewed the litter and debris that 
abounded. Shingles, boards and tin roofs filled the streets, 



536 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

and trees, stripped to skeletons, plants blown flat to the ground 
and vines torn from their supports, formed a forbidding pros- 
pect. As for oranges! That crop was a thing of the past. 
Never since that memorable night has Pasadena felt an 
approximation to that boreal disturbance. And what occa- 
sioned this visitation so rare and so energetic! Away off 
across the Pacific — toward the Orient — there was a " vacuum' ' 
in the atmosphere, a cavern in the heavenly zone which must 
be filled, and filled at once, to restore the disturbed equilib- 
rium. To fill this vacant space the winds of the desert gal- 
loped in frantic desire across mountains, across valleys, across 
the vast ocean, to fulfill their functions; and in doing so 
brought wreck to whatever flimsy structures mere man had 
interposed. One peculiar feature of these desert winds is 
that the atmosphere becomes charged with electricity trying 
to the "nerves." The family feline is a battery, which will, 
if caressed, emit sparks like unto the June bugs of our child- 
hood days. During these desert winds the humidity falls 
to almost a disappearing point, the air becoming remarkably 
"dry." This "dryness" is one of the causes of the salubrity 
of the climate and of its attractiveness, for even though the 
temperature becomes over-normal, the lack of humidity and 
consequent rapid evaporation of body moisture prevents the 
depression and discomforts experienced in a hot and humid 
atmosphere. This is one of the secrets of the California 
climate. 

Pasadena is thus located ideally, for climatic conditions, 
being situated at a desirable elevation, having a great ocean 
to give it the tonic of its purifying zephyrs, and with a moun- 
tain barrier to ward off the excessive humidity and torridity 
of desert temperatures or tropic conditions. It may be said 
then, that Pasadena has few hot days and no hot nights ; for no 
matter how much above normal may be the midday tempera- 
tures — sometimes as high as 100 to 105, and on very rare occa- 
sions even higher — night brings with its cooling airs an agree- 
able surcease. During the long dry summer, when practically 
no rain falls, occasional fogs drift in from the Pacific and act 
as heat absorbers. The California climate has almost adopted 
a three-day habit for "hot spells." There is a "warm" day, 
a "warmer" day and a "hot" one as a climax. The ther- 
mometer goes climbing until it reaches the maximum of per- 
haps 95 degrees Fahrenheit, perhaps 100 degrees. It may do 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



537 



this several times during the whole summer, but upon the 
third day — almost invariably — there drifts in from the ocean 
a great fog which smothers the rising temperature and brings 
cooling consolation to the land, and emits blessings from its 
inhabitants. 





CHAPTEE LVI 

Forest Fires and Keforestration 

FLOOD CONTROL 

|T required many years for the United States Govern- 
ment to become so fully cognizant of the urgent 
need of protection that must be given to the forests 
in our mountains, not only as timber conservation, 
but as a more important one, the conservation of 
its water supply. A mountain slope denuded of forest loses 
95 per cent of the rain which falls upon it, whereas the same 
surface forested retains 95 per cent of the rainfall and surren- 
ders it to its purpose later in the summer months as a 
beneficent stream. 

Forest fires have destroyed many fine tracts of timber that 
once throve upon the slopes and in the canyons of the Sierra 
Madres. A careless camper, a neglected camp fire or a dis- 
carded cigarette stump — then a raging furnace that destroys 
forever the growth of centuries. 

As I said, for years nothing was done to prevent this waste 
and its result until about twenty-five years ago when the 
county supervisors gave the matter some attention and even- 
tually the United States Government, through the Bureau of 
Forestry, had the mountains patrolled and "fire breaks' ' 
made throughout them, and today if a fire does occur, it is 
short lived and has therefore lost its former menace. 

Keforestration 

But what of the already burnt acres, the barren mountain- 
sides that appealed in their pathetic nakedness? It was left 
for a Pasadena citizen to arouse the Government to the urgent 
necessity that already, by devastating fires, now existed in our 
near by ranges. 

It was T. P. Lukens, whose observations convincing him of 
these needs, first began experiments upon his own account in 
the direction of reforestration. It was in 1895 when he began 
collecting seeds of forest trees where they had fallen in their 
own habitat and experimenting with them. The most com- 

538 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 539 

mon were pines and spruce in variety and he planted them 
experimentally on the denuded surface. There was much to 
learn and little prior experience under similar environments 
to be a guidance. 

Failure followed this direct planting, and it was found 
by experiment that these seeds must be first started into plants 
in fitting nursery, and when two years old transplanted to 
their final habitat. It was also discovered by experience, that 
certain varieties throve better than others; thus the pinus 
tuberculata, pinus coulteri — the big cone pine — and the big 
cone spruce were best adapted to the mountains here. Thus 
for years did Lukens labor, becoming all the while more 
devoted to his purpose. During the years from 1903 to 1906 
he planted no less than 40,000 trees on the mountains here- 
about, of which almost all are growing lustily today, as we 
may notice while making the ascent to Mount Wilson. 

For years Lukens gave his services to this work gra- 
tuitously and cheerfully, but at last in 1900, the Government 
recognized his services in a way by appointing him a " col- 
lector' ' in the United States Forest Service at a nominal 
salary of $300 per annum. From this small compensation he 
was raised, and through successive appointments, as forest 
agent, then as forest expert, at various salaries, none exceed- 
ing $1,600 in 1906, which terminated his official connection 
with the Government, but not his active interest in this work. 

A tract of land has been leased at the head of Lake Avenue, 
Pasadena, where nurseries have been established for the 
propagation of forest trees. Here they are grown from the 
seeds and maintained until ready for transplanting. Thus the 
good work of conserving and renewing devastated forest 
ranges goes apace. 

During these years he has had the repeated commendation 
of Gilford Pinchot, chief forester for the Department of Agri- 
culture, and of other officials engaged in this important service. 
Much more might be said of the extreme value to Pasadena 
this labor has been and its increasing importance as years 
pass by. 

Now the supervisors have taken the matter in hand, and 
in conjunction with its equally important work, flood control, 
have organized a systematic method for the protection of for- 
ests and valley as well. 



540 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Flood Contkol 

Within the past few years attention has been directed to 
the importance of controlling the waters that rush from the 
canyons during winter rains. Much damage was done to 
groves and farm lands by reason of unusual storms in the 
years 1911 to 1914, when new channels were gouged through 
valuable lands and many thousands of dollars worth of prop- 
erty destroyed. 

Water conservation is the twin obligation of flood control. 
Water is too valuable in Southern California to waste, also 
too formidable, if not controlled; hence the supervisors set 
about to bring engineering skill to bear upon the problem, 
resulting in the building of ' ' retaining drains ' ' in various can- 
yons, which serve to retard, or break, the impetuous waters 
and control their movements. C. D. Daggett has given this 
service much attention. 

The dam proposed at Devil's Gate is to be built in con- 
formity with these control and conservation plans, and it is 
expected to prove valuable. A county board of forestry has 
been organized under the direction of the supervisors, and the 
forestry work is conducted by this board in conjunction with 
the United States Government. 




CHAPTER LVII 

Some Cognate Facts 
the cost of it statistics the old mill 

THERE ARE SOME WHO COME TO A CONCLUSION THROUGH THE COLLABORA- 
TION OP FIGURES. THE VITAL THING TO THEM IS — WHAT DOES IT 
COST ? HOW MUCH DO WE PAY FOR OUR PRIVILEGES ? AND WHY IS 
PASADENA WORTH WHILE? 

FTER reading the preceding chapters of this volume 
some may be interested in these appended statis- 
tics. For them this chapter will be illuminating. 
Premising, let me say, in brief, that the cost of the 
necessities of life is favorably comparable in Pasa- 
dena with the same articles anywhere East or West. But there 
are other differences: The fuel bill is less, because the need 
of artificial heating is very appreciably different — for reasons 
already given. Gas is the commonest fuel. The need of a 
doctor is less frequent because of the claims of outdoor life ; 
people, especially children, experience in much lesser degree 
the malaise occasioned by undue indoor confinement, with its 
incident tendency to non-exercise. With 350 days — or there- 
abouts — in each year, when children may play or exercise out 
of doors, or when the adult may engage in golf every day for 
seven months, and most of the days in the other five, the 
^Esculapian has poor shrift. 

Then, with fresh fruit and vegetables always at hand, 
infantile disorders are in minimum as a consequence. So, at 
least, the paramount factor to happiness — good health — is rea- 
sonably assured. Then come such conveniences as travel; the 
street cars abundantly suggest comfortable methods and con- 
venient ways. The three great transcontinental and state 
railways provide intercommunication with the world at large. 
Water is plentiful for all needs — and pure, beyond question. 
Schools, churches, fraternal societies, clubs — the accessories 
of business, social and moral existence — abound. But above 
all, the home is here, from the simplest to the most palatial — 
one may have what he pays for ! 

541 



542 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



The Motokists' Pakadise 

Southern California — and Pasadena is jealous of no other 
section of it — presents to the enthusiastic motorist opportuni- 
ties for enjoyment the year round. Possessing as it does 
splendid paved streets everywhere, smooth-surfaced maca- 
damized highways — hundreds of miles of them in Los Angeles 
County alone — the automobilist may drive all day long over 
easy roads through scenery unsurpassed — by orange groves, 
walnut groves, vineyards, fields of alfalfa and grain, and all 
the while having an ever-changing loveliness of mountains to 
frame the unequaled picture. 

He can, if going eastward, pass through thriving towns, 
cities and villages; find a fine refectory at Eiverside, where 
the celebrated "Glenwood" will tempt him to stay, for a time 
at least, to enjoy its uniqueness and its interesting collection 
of things pertaining to missions and mission life. He may 
travel towards the beach towns and lave himself there, or at 
least inhale the stimulating breezes wafted from the Pacific. 
With Pasadena as the radiating point, the motorist may find 
fine highways extending to San Diego, 125 miles southward, or 
he may reach Santa Barbara, on the north, by traversing 
another splendid highway for 100 miles — even farther for 500 
miles — still on well macadamized or concrete highways, to 
San Francisco. Certainly no one may truthfully complain of 
lack of traveling facilities if he ventures the splendid boule- 
vards of California. 

Nearer home, the 
little trips abound in 
plenty. San Gabriel 
and its old mission is 
near by and full of in- 
terest; then on to El 
Monte or to Whittier 
with its interesting re- 
form school. La Can- 
ada offers an interest- 
ing ride, as does the 
Altadena foothill bou- 
1 e v a r d ; thence to 
Sierra Madre. The 
drive up the Arroyo 

SeCO road aS tar aS it First Grist Mill Built in California, 1810 




PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 543 

at present extends — is full of interest and beauty. San Fer- 
nando and its mission, and Owensmouth, where gushes the tre- 
mendous aqueduct waters, or Van Nuys, are short-ride oppor- 
tunities worth while. Indeed, there are many interesting spots 
to be visited and the journeys thereto offer continual pleasures 
to the motorist. 

Mountain trips also abound here and hereby. Most of 
the greater canyons are negotiable by auto, or at least to some 
extent. A fine drive reaches into San Antonio Canyon and 
ends at Camp Baldy beside a noisy stream and within a hos- 
pitable camp. Sawpit Canyon, Pasadena Glen and others 
within easy distance make the motorist's day happy and add 
to the sum of agreeable existence. 

Some Data 

The area of Pasadena is 13.91 square miles, with new terri- 
tory seeking admission. 

The altitude above the sea at the corner of Colorado Street 
and Fair Oaks Avenue is 850 feet. At the north city limits 
it is 1,100 feet. 

It has a population of 47,000. 

It has 11,500 homes, and building more all the while. 

It has a municipal lighting system. 

It has a water system of its own. 

It has five theaters — all exhibiting "film" — with varia- 
tions. 

It has no saloons. 

Pasadena has 107 physicians, including osteopathic prac- 
titioners and other l ' pathics. ' ' Some of these are not in regu- 
lar practice, but about seventy-five are still pursuing the arts 
of .ZEsculapius. This list does not include the twenty-four 
Christian Science practitioners. 

There are 125 real estate men — some placidly ruminating, 
some up to the minute. 

There are forty-six barbers, all able and willing to give a 
clean shave, with the usual conversational adjuncts of the 
trade. 

There are eighty groceries, big and little, including some 
of the Model string of fourteen and the Chaffee string of 
eighteen stores — located here and hereabouts. 

There are fifty-five attorneys, willing to write a will or 
plead a cause — caveat actor ! 



544 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

There are fifty-two dentists, every one of them with a good 
pnll. 

Forty-six auto agencies are able to keep every family on 
the gasoline way. 

Fourteen bakeries supply the hungry with the staff of 
life — and pies. 

The center of Pasadena is three miles from the foot of the 
Sierra Madres, which lie directly north. 

Total length of streets, 175 miles — paved, 145 miles ; side- 
walks, all cement, 224 miles. 

Assessed value of real estate (66 per cent of cash value), 
$60,000,000. 

Tax Eate — Original city limits, 1.03; North Pasadena, 
.993 ; East Pasadena, .987 ; Linda Vista, San Eaf ael Heights 
and Pasadena Heights, .941. 

It will require a total of $1,590,283.80 to operate all city 
departments for the current year. Principal items applied 
as follows: 

General government $ 72,460.00 

Protection to persons and property. . 171,825.50 

Conservation of health 13,170.00 

Sanitation 84,321.75 

Streets and highways 179,355.00 

Libraries 39,550.00 

Parks and recreation 118,142.00 

Bonds and interest 48,871.74 

Municipal lighting 263,226.70 

Municipal water 275,780.34 

Four months' surplus 205,837.45 

Promotion and publicity 14,700.00 

It is assumed that the income from the lighting and water 
systems will meet all expenses connected with their adminis- 
tration and leave some surplus. 

El Molino and Some Otheb Intekesting Objects 

When the Indiana Colony was established there were sev- 
eral objects of interest in the vicinity which held more than 
common interest to the colonists. The first of these was, of 
course, the Garfias adobe, or as much of it as yet remained, the 
mission, and the "Old Mill. ,, Before the building of the old 
mill the Indians and the Spanish people about San Gabriel 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



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PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 547 

ground their grain or the nuts they used for food in stone 
metates (mortars). Many of these metates and their accom- 
panying pestles have been found about the sites of former 
Indian villages and are sometimes yet to be found. 

But with the advent of Fray Zalvidea at the mission, busi- 
ness energy was instituted there, for the worthy friar believed 
in making lazy Indians labor as well as eat, and began a course 
of training that Avas different in many respects from the 
indolent past. It is said by historians of the period that when 
Fray Zalvidea couldn't overcome the aboriginal's reluctance 
to work and be baptized too, pretty vigorous efforts were fol- 
lowed to improve him. In fact, posses of troopers were sent 
into the hills to fetch the recalcitrants to book. This may 
explain the lengthy roster of acolytes that cheered the laboring 
friars. 

It was Fray Zalvidea who built the "Old Mill" by Wilson's 
Lake, and which for many years was an object of romantic 
interest. This mill was built in 1810-11, under the supervision 
of one Claudio Lopez, who stood grimly over the reluctant 
aboriginal while he toiled at his unaccustomed labor. 

It was built of stone Avith a tile roof, the Avails being from 
three to four feet in thickness. The Avater for driving the 
grinding wheels AA T as brought from a little stream called Mill 
Creek, rising in Los Robles Canyon and Avhich, after perform- 
ing its serA-ices at the mill, ran into the depression that formed 
a lake, in later years knoAA T n as Wilson's Lake. This lake was 
enlarged by building a dam across its loAA^er side and thus 
became valuable, because this stored Avater Avas used to run 
a saAA r mill, a tannery and for other useful purposes under the 
able direction of Father Zalvidea. The father Avas fast estab- 
lishing a system of business enterprises about the mission in 
which the neophytes were compelled to perform their part. 
These little industries supplied the country thereabout — and 
even to greater distance — with meal, tanned skins and saAved 
timber, becoming a source of revenue to the mission. So, if 
Ave feel inclined to criticize the severity of Fray Zalvidea, we 
neA T ertheless must concede him to be a man of business 
capacity, perhaps quite suited to the people whom he had 
pressed into his service. 

But the original mill Avas superseded by another, built in 
1821-22, by one Joseph Chapman (for the mission), an adven- 
turous buccaneer or pirate, who by good luck Avas captured 



548 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

by Spanish Californians and somehow acquired their friend- 
ship. He eventually married the daughter of a large land 
owner, became a substantial citizen and landed proprietor 
himself — a romance of itself ! 

The new mill, being located just opposite the mission, did 
the work needed and the old one was abandoned. In 1859 
Col. E. J. C. Kewen purchased a tract of land including the 
original mill, and converted the mill into a dwelling, where he 
lived with his family for many years. Colonel Kewen became 
widely known as a democratic politician and as an orator. 
He was elected attorney general of the state. A son, Perry 
Kewen, now resides at South Pasadena and is fond of relating 
how he once hunted wildcats and foxes where Pasadena's 
business now centers. 

The original' 'Old Mill" passed into the hands of Col. E. L. 
Mayberry, who built a fine residence near it and lived there 
for many years. This property is now part of the Oak Knoll 
tract and the site of some fine villas. The mill itself is now 
the club house attached to the Huntington Hotel, and a golf 
club headquarters. One of the millstones used in grinding 
was secured by Mrs. Jeanne Carr, and is at present used as a 
doorstep at her late home on Kensington Drive. When Mrs. 
Carr built her home at Carmelita — long since removed — she 
procured some of the original tiles from the mission at San 
Gabriel and utilized them in constructing a fireplace in that 
home. The hearth was thus formed. The second mill herein 
mentioned was long ago destroyed, no trace now remaining. 

Here is a story of the "Old Mill ,, which is believed by 
many persons. An old German miller and his son, who once 
devoted themselves to grinding out grain from its rumbling 
stones, kept their gold and other valuables hidden in the mill. 
During an Indian raid a long, long time ago these millers, 
fearing the Indians might loot the premises, took their val- 
uables out to an oak tree at Oak Knoll, and secretly buried 
them under it, marking the tree carefully. Both of the men 
were killed by the Indians — it is said — in a skirmish that fol- 
lowed. As no one knew just where the gold was buried, it has 
never been found, but many have hunted and dug under 
numerous oak trees since, hoping to uncover it. 

Thus passeth the romance of the once famous "Old Mill." 
Perhaps a modern romance may some time hallow it — the 
romance of golf sticks and the effete business man endeavor- 
ing to rehabilitate a batered constitution and the girl. 



CHAPTEE LVIII 



South Pasadena 





OUTH PASADENA has 

grown with its sister city 

and now contains abont 

8,000 population, has a city 

government of its own, well 
paved and 1 lighted streets, a fine public 
library and other things that go to 
make a fine "home" city. Two rail- 
roads pass through the city and a 
street car system connects at frequent 
intervals with Los Angeles and Pasa- 
dena. 

It is worth while to include in this 
history a brief resume of our sister GEORGE WELLMAN GLOVER 
city's claims to distinction. This author requested George 
Wellman Glover, a resident of South Pasadena for thirty- 
three years and well known writer, to furnish the required in- 
formation. 

South Pasadena 
by geokge wellman" glovek 

Because a portion of the lands originally bought for settle- 
ment by the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association are now 
within the city limits of South Pasadena the author has felt 
that there should be a chapter of his History of Pasadena de- 
voted exclusively to South Pasadena. I have been asked to 
write this chapter, which must of necessity be rather more 
limited as to length than some enthusiastic residents may 
deem just; but I am sure a close reading of the history will 
show that the subject has not been slighted. 

Bkief Genekal Histoky 

The first white settler in what later became South Pasa- 
dena was Mr. David M. Eaab. Buying a ranch of some thirty 
acres from Mr. D. B. Wilson, he built his house on the site 

549 



550 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 



still occupied by Ms widow and those of his children that are 
not the heads of families of their own. The sightly location 
on the brow of the hill overlooking the entire valley was 
chosen both for the sake of utility and of beauty. Later, when 
the new house was built, it was constructed to face Buenavista 
Street. Mr. Raab came in 1870. Carl Raab, now a resident 
of El Monte, with his family, was the first child to bring joy 
to the new settler. He was born February 4th, 1873, thus 
coming along just nine months and nine days too soon to 
claim the honor of being the first born in Pasadena. True, 
he was right on the ground, but at that time there was no 
Pasadena, the incorporation having been consummated on 
November 13th, 1873, and settlement even later. Considering 
the wonderful growth and success in every way of Pasadena, 
who shall dare assert that there can be anything unlucky about 
the number 13? 

However, before the settlement was far advanced, some of 
the early settlers were hard at work getting out water, pre- 
paring to build their homes and in other ways demonstrating 
their faith in the future. Among these, and who chose loca- 
tions in what is now South Pasadena, were Messrs. P. M. 
Green, A. 0. Porter and William Barcus. Mr. Green and Mr. 
Porter built their houses very close together, for the sake of 
company, and they were the first plastered houses built in 
what is now South Pasadena. They still stand in a good state 
of preservation at the junction of Orange Grove Avenue and 
Oliver Street. 

At the time the first of what is generally known as the 
Indiana Colony arrived, there were but three houses in this 
portion of the country. 
They were the residence 
of Mr. D. M. Raab, the 
Garfias adobe, long ago 
disposed of, and the 
adobe house then known 
as the Bacon Ranch 
House, now better known 
as the property of" Mrs. 
Mary Belle Hardison. It 
stands on Garfield Ave- 
nue, just southeast of the 
Raymond Hill. The Gar- 




SOUTH PASADENA 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 551 

fias adobe stood on the bank of the Arroyo Seco, on property 
now owned by the writer. 

The postoffice was established in South Pasadena January 
1st, 1883, by Frank M. Glover, brother of the writer, and who 
died March 29th, 1884. The office was established in the north- 
east room, ground floor, of what was then Hermosa Vista, the 
first hotel in South Pasadena, and kept by Mrs. M. J. Glover, 
mother of the writer. This house still stands at this date, al- 
though after changing hands a couple of times it was remod- 
eled and changed into a modern residence, and is now owned 
by and is the home of Prof. George E. Hale, the eminent as- 
tronomer. 

This location was widely known as a health resort even at 
that early date. The first postmaster came here in the vain 
hope that he might be cured of tuberculosis. When he died 
the office was taken over by Mr. Charles Case, who held it but 
a short time before he, too, yielded up his life, a victim of the 
great white plague. Each had come too late for the climate 
to be of lasting benefit, although doubtless each had a little 
longer lease of life. At the death of Mr. Case the office was 
taken over by his widow, Mrs. Gertrude Case, daughter of an 
early settler, Mr. 0. R. Dougherty, who was prominent in the 
activities of early days here. Soon the office was moved from 
its location on Columbia Street, where Mr. Case took it on 
succeeding to the postmastership, to a location of greater con- 
venience to the little business center that was by this time 
springing up on and adjacent to Mission Street and Meridian 
Avenue. The office remained for several years on Meridian 
Avenue, just north of Mission Street. Then it was moved 
farther south on the same street, where it was more convenient 
to the Santa Fe Eailroad, which had by this time superseded 
the two four-horse stages that plied daily between Pasadena 
and Los Angeles, and took care of the mail of our postoffice 
as a call station. When the Santa Fe Eailroad changed its 
route through South Pasadena the postoffice was moved to a 
location on Mission Street, almost directly opposite where it 
is now located. Here it remained until the Alexander Build- 
ing was completed, when it was moved into spacious quarters 
in the new building and has remained there since. To make 
the line of postmasters complete, it may be added that Mrs. 
Keith, the present city librarian, succeeded Mrs. Case when 
she remarried. And she, in turn, was succeeded by Mrs. 



552 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

Stephens, who held it until succeeded by her son, Mr. Eoy 
Stephens, who held it up to the time of the consolidation with 
the Los Angeles postoffice. 

Religious History 

From the best data obtainable there can be no doubt that 
the first religious services ever held in South Pasadena by 
white people was a series of services held by the famous old 
padres beneath the spreading branches of the old live oak 
tree that stands just adjacent to the spring that bubbles up 
from under Arroyo Drive, a couple of hundred feet south of 
where Hermosa Street joins Arroyo Drive. Old Spanish and 
Mexican residents who lived in this vicinity even after the 
arrival of the writer in 1884 used to tell of the services held 
there, and agreed that the services held there antedated the 
first services held at San Gabriel, before the building of the 
San Gabriel Mission was undertaken. This point was the tem- 
porary place of worship while working out in detail the plans 
for that historic old mission. A cross was at that time cut in 
the bark of the tree, and its dim outlines may yet be found by 
close observers, or by those who knew the location of it before 
time had so completely healed the wound. A third of a cen- 
tury ago, when the writer first observed this cross, it showed 
very plainly, and evidently had been cut deeply when it was 
made. Yet it will not take another third of a century for the 
great healer, Nature, to obliterate all vestige of it. Within 
the last year or so some person has applied a light coat of a 
bluish colored paint over the old cross, evidently in the hope 
that the exact location of it may be preserved, or else it may 
have been done for the purpose of photographing it. But 
even this is rapidly fading away, and it would seem to be a 
good thing for the Landmarks Club, or some other organiza- 
tion of record, to have the old cross recut sufficiently deep to 
preserve it ; of course, first getting the consent of the owner of 
the tree at the present time. 

Coming down to more modern times the first record that 
can be found and verified relating to religious organizations 
in this city show that about the 1st of October, 1885, a union 
Sunday school was organized in the South Pasadena school- 
house. The late Mr. George A. Green was elected superin- 
tendent, and Mr. George W. Wilson was chosen assistant 
superintendent. It was organized with the understanding that 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 553 

it should come under the supervision of the first evangelical 
church to be organized here. The Sunday school was claimed 
by the Congregational Church, when that organization was 
completed in the building that then was known as the Sierra 
Madre College Building, but later was remodeled and made 
over, and for many years has been the residence of Mr. C. D. 
Daggett. Mr. Green went with the Congregational Church 
when it later built a new house of worship on the corner of 
California Street and Pasadena Avenue. 

The South Pasadena Methodist Church was organized in 
the fall of 1886, with Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Soper and Mr. and 
Mrs. H. J. Cone as charter members. Of these four Mrs. Soper 
is the only one yet living in this city, both Mrs. Cone and 
Mr. Soper having passed away, and Mr. Cone having left the 
city some years ago. 

The Baptist Church was organized in 1888, and soon there- 
after a house of worship was built on the north side of Mission 
Street, at the corner of Fairview Avenue, where services were 
held for a number of years, when the property was sold and 
a new and larger edifice was erected at their present location. 

Calvary Presbyterian Church dates its organization from 
the year 1892. An organization bearing the same name, how- 
ever, and worshiping in a chapel that was built on Columbia 
Street, came into existence in 1887; but by request made to 
the Presbytery of Los Angeles, it had by that body been 
disbanded. 

Next the St. James' Episcopal Church was established in 
1901. And some years later their house of worship was built 
on the corner of Fremont Avenue and Monterey Boad. 

In 1904 the Christian Church was organized, and later the 
present house of worship was erected. 

Next came the organization of the Catholic Church in 1910. 
Property was bought on which to erect a house of worship, 
and later, the Holy Family Church will be built on the corner 
of Fremont Avenue and El Centro Street. In the meantime, 
services are regularly held in the temporary structure that 
has been used from the time the property was bought. 

Public Schools 

There appears to be a woeful lack of official data to be 
secured concerning the schools of South Pasadena in the early 
days ; and in fact up to a date long after such records would 



554 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

naturally be supposed to be treasured and jealously guarded. 
However, gathering from personal memory and from older 
settlers, it seems to be pretty accurately stated when it is 
declared that Mr. Charles Case, the second postmaster of 
South Pasadena, was the teacher of the first school here. 
[Correct. — Ed.] The sessions were held in a small building 
that stood almost in the middle of what is now Eose Avenue, 
at the top of the hill, before that street was graded and the 
hill cut down. The building was erected with funds donated 
by the settlers, and it is a moot question as to whether there 
were six or seven pupils in the first term of school. The little 
old building is still in existence, but since its removal and 
incorporation in another house its identity practically is lost. 
It was moved down the hill to the Scharff place early in the 
'90s or late in the '80s, and at its new location additions were 
made to it, since which time it has been used at various times 
as a residence and a storehouse. Mr. John Lewis Childs of 
Floral Park, N. Y., now owns the property and the house. 

The unfortunate hiatus in the school records makes it 
impossible to state the wonderful growth of the South Pasa- 
dena schools by years. But it may be said without the fear 
of contradiction that the schools have had a very rapid growth 
since the beginning of that little school away back in the very 
beginnings of the '80s. The city now has four roomy and 
substantial elementary buildings, one kindergarten building 
and two kindergarten schools housed in rented quarters, in 
addition to the magnificent group of high school buildings. 
The enrollment in the elementary department last year was 
950 ; in the high school, 325 ; and in the kindergarten, 100. To 
take care of these bright young minds and fit them for the 
future requires the services of thirty-four teachers in the 
elementary department, nineteen in the high school and four 
in the kindergarten. 

The high school of South Pasadena has a very high stand- 
ing, and the regular course of studies is superior to some other 
high schools. The high school was formally established 
December 3d, 1904. That year a class of but five pupils were 
given instruction in ninth grade work by Professor Harter, at 
that time supervising principal of city schools and teacher of 
the eighth grade. The following year quarters were provided 
in the Center Street building, where the term opened with 
thirty-one pupils and two teachers. Then bonds were voted 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 555 

in the sum of $75,000, and with this money a six-acre tract 
bounded by Fremont Avenue on the east, Diamond Avenue on 
the west, Bank Street on the north and Eollins Street on the 
south was secured at a cost of but $15,000. With the remain- 
der of the money the first building was erected, work on which 
was begun in July, 1906. On April 8th, 1907, the school was 
transferred to the new building. 

In 1913 it became necessary to add two more buildings, and 
the Manual Arts and Household Economy buildings were 
erected in that year. 

The schools of South Pasadena are always crowded. They 
have a good name, hence it is almost impossible to build ahead 
with sufficient speed to provide at all times the room that 
seems to be required. 





CHAPTER LIX 

The Beginneks in Pasadena 

RE COED of the "original" in various lines of 
endeavor would be very interesting if obtainable. 
But that is an impossible undertaking now. Here 
is an interesting as well as a valuable historic record 
for future information. 

The first baby born was Helen Wentworth, daughter of 
Mr. and Mrs. George Wentworth. She saw light on what was 
then the Joseph Wallace place, on the northwest corner of 
old Fair Oaks Avenue and Mountain Street (now East Orange 
Grove and Lincoln avenues). Born in 1874 — exact date 
not obtainable. 

The first store was a small frame building on South 
Orange Grove Avenue, just below Colorado Street (No. 59), 
M. Rosenbaum, proprietor. 

The first church — the Presbyterian — built in 1875 on Cali- 
fornia Street, just east of Orange Grove Avenue. 

The first schoolhouse was built on South Orange Grove 
Avenue, just south of California Street, in 1875. The first 
teacher was Jennie Clapp. 

The first public religious services were held at C. H. Watts ' 
bachelor cottage, August 30th, 1874, Rev. W. C. Mosher con- 
ducting them. The first regular sermon was preached in the 
schoolhouse, February 7th, 1875. 

The first wedding was that of C. H. Watts and Millie 
Locke, March 12th, 1875. 

The first drug store was the Pasadena Pharmacy, con- 
ducted by this writer — February, 1883. 

The first "official" citizen was I. N. Mundell, who was 
appointed road overseer, 1875. 

The first postmaster was Henry T. Hollingsworth, 
appointed September 21st, 1876. 

The first bank was the Pasadena Bank, organized Novem- 
ber 21st, 1884. It began business January 12th, 1885. P. M. 
Green, president. 

556 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 557 

The first " practicing ' ' barber was A. S. Hollingsworth, 
who had a chair in the corner of his father's store. The first 
shop was opened on North Fair Oaks Avenue in 1883 by a man 
named Eossi, and afterwards moved to West Colorado Street ; 
later purchased by Joe Laspada, who still owns it. 

The first harness shop was owned by Harry C. Price, who 
opened up in 1883. 

The first automobile was owned by Eobert H. Gaylord. It 
was of French " extraction' ' and was a thing of wonder to all 
beholders. 

The first photographer was George Weingarth, who opened 
the "Ferndale Gallery' ' in 1882. Some of the old pictures in 
this book were from his photographs. 

The first real estate dealer was T. P. Lukens. 

The first telephone was put in Williams' store in Decem- 
ber, 1883, and the first "Hello" was made by Wesley Bunnell. 

The first bicycle owned in Pasadena was owned by Will 
Hisey. It was one of the "big wheelers." 

The first bicycle shop was opened by Ed Braley just where 
his fine four-story building now stands. 

The first dentist was John White. 

The first lumber yard was started by J. Banbury. The 
office stood where the Metcalf Building now is — on Colorado 
Street, by the Santa Fe tracks — 1883. 

Charley Evan built the woodwork of the first wagon built 
in the city. He was probably the first hardwood worker in 
the city, 1884. 

The first blacksmith was J. H. Baker, and his shop was on 
the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and Walnut Street, 1875. 

The first bakery was run by Fulford & Crozier in the 
Mullins Block, South Fair Oaks Avenue, 1884. 

The first buggy was owned by Sherman Washburn. 

The first newspaper was the Chronicle — Ward Brothers, 
owners ; Charles M. Daly, editor — 1883. 

The first billiard room was owned by Jerome Beebe in 1884. 

The first milk route established in 1883 by L. A. Carey. 

The first express office — Wells, Fargo Company — 1885. 
C. A. Sawtelle, agent. 

The first train came into Pasadena on the San Gabriel 
Valley Eailroad, September 21st, 1885. John D. Eipley was 
a fireman on that engine. 

The first mail via train arrived September 25th, 1885. 



558 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

The first gas used for lighting was made by an engine 
owned by R. Williams and supplied Wood's Drug Store and 
Williams Building. October 22, 1885, was the occasion. 

The first arrest was of a -"dago" who had imbibed too 
much "dago red" and was hauled to the Los Angeles "jug" 
by Tom Banbury, deputy sheriff. 

The first house was built by A. 0. Bristol, February, 1874. 

The first death was that of William Green Porter, June 
13th, 1876. 

The first city election was held June 7th, 1886. 

The first book store and news stand was owned by Thomas 
Grimes. 

The first doctor was J. M. Radebaugh, who came in 1882. 

The first architect was C. B. Ripley. Also the first builder. 

The first dry goods store was opened by A. Cruickshank in 
1883. 

The first nursery was owned by Byron 0. Clark. 

The first ice company was the Pasadena Ice Company. 

The first brickyard was run by Goss, Simons & Hubbard. 

The first brick store building was built for Craig & Hub- 
bard, grocers, where the Brunswick Billiard Hall is. This 
was in 1885. 

The first (and almost only) brick residence was built by 
B. F. Ball on North Fair Oaks Avenue in 1879. 

The first hardware store was owned by Will Wakeley. 

The first paper route was run by Whit. Elliott, who went 
to Los Angeles at 2 A. M. each day for his papers. 

H. Corday was the first tailor. 



CHAPTER LX 

The Final Wokds 




N saying these last words, which parts the writer from 
his patient reader, I naturally feel that regret which 
comes with a parting from an agreeable companion 
at the termination of a long journey. My chief 
hope is that this companion may feel — equally with 
myself — the same tinge of regret, or at least, so much of it 
as will satisfy him that the journey has not been entirely with- 
out profit, pleasure and information. 

I have had a long span of years to encompass on this 
journey. Perhaps I went too far back when I took the leap 
to that romantic period when the sandal-footed friar wan- 
dered, patiently, from post to post in the work of the Holy 
Church. But I believe that California owes much to these 
self-denying missionaries who gave themselves to the work of 
Christianizing aborigines and establishing a better civilization 
in this land. Coming down to a later, more modern, date, it 
seemed proper, in fact, necessary, to pause a little at that 
unforgettable period when romance dwelt in the land and 
endowed it with its palpitating atmosphere. Nowhere in the 
United States but in California could such life be lived, for it is 
the history of all nations that climate and environment pro- 
duce their own temperamental types and mold the life of 
peoples. I like to dwell upon the time when the Caballero, 
like the troubadour of old, came on starlit nights, when the 
atmosphere was redolent of perfume, and sang to dark-eyed 
senorita behind restraining window bars, and who wore as 
the fair one's guerdon her accolade of bright-hued lovers' 
knot. 

I like to dwell upon the brief years when the Eancho San 
Pascual had its own Lady Chatelaine — if but for a time — who 
conferred upon it such sentimental distinction as fair duenna 
might. Oh, romance ! that it must vanish so before the tramp 
of the gringo, who so heartlessly replaced the lattice windows 
with Yankee-made shades, and the patio with a porch ! 

Those were tranquil days, days when existence was 
manana, when the sire was a patriarch, when the sons were 

559 



560 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

gay Caballeros, and the daughters ever lovely and beautiful. 
Then the flocks wandered in peaceful content over virgin pas- 
tures, treading their brilliant floral embroideries under heed- 
less feet. Then priests wended their pious footsteps from 
post to post, and leather-coated sons of Mars surrendered to 
the compelling lures of Eros and became patient spouses, 
engaging in peaceful pastimes and in raising families. This 
was before the gringo looked with covetous eyes upon this fair 
land, and took full note of the too confiding dons' prodigal 
ways. 

No one may contemplate the passing of these hospitable 
dons without a sentiment of regret — even if conceding it neces- 
sary to the progress that was irresistible. 

But we must pass on, leaving behind us these pleasant 
memories, and give place to the "yanqui" from Indiana, from 
Iowa, or from wherever he might come, that he might set up 
his more modern shrine wherein sentiment had but little part. 

And these invaders ! The pioneers had few traditions to 
hamper them. Habits and customs might cling to them with 
stubborn persistency — and did. But a new horizon was 
opened up, and it behooved them to evolve from it a far 
better ultimate than did past conditions divine. Here was 
found a beneficent climate, fertile soil and beauteous environ- 
ment — stimulus to great things, to high ideals of life. Here 
was the melting pot of ideas from which there must come a 
gracious measure of new life. 

So, it was their duty and must be their pleasure to "make 
good," to transform the gifts that nature had bestowed upon 
them to a practical utilization. Would they do it ? And they 
did cast about them for the ways to invest these blessings and 
utilize them. The canyons distilled from the winter's storms 
sparkling pools and streams, which came singing down their 
pebbly beds. The alchemy of soil, and water, and sunshine 
gave back luscious fruits, rare vintages and nourishing grains. 
Here, indeed, was fair foundations of a splendid common- 
wealth! The eyes of Lynceus were said to see through the 
earth. The pioneer had no such vision, but he did perceive 
phenomenal promise in the land of his adoption and fortunate 
choice. We know the results. The pioneer does not claim all 
of the habiliments of this goodly city to be of his foreordain- 
ing. But he did his part. Came the transformation from 
sheep pastures to a community of happy people ; came Flora, 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 561 

Pomona, Ceres — all fairy goddesses contributing their lux- 
urious endowments. Water and land, and the guiding hand 
of man — what glory of attainment ! But it was not all as easy 
as it sounds, or to read about. Indeed, no ! Deprivations 
and hardships went hand in hand, even though there were 
always alluring dreams to bring hope. 

The husbandman who busied his days pruning trees and 
in directing the living streams through thirsty furrows 
dreamed of oranges at $5 a box, and became muy pronto, a 
three-tailed Bashaw, with Pactolean streams flowing in sweet 
rhythm from his gold-minting groves. Alas — dreams not 
often realized ! 

Came then, and later, the vanguard of speculators, acclaim- 
ing new emprise and offering honorariums of real gold. Gold 
was bartered for land, and land again for more gold. Those 
who had waited with patient philosophy found their vigils 
ended and opportunity knocking loudly at their doors. The 
end seemed achieved, though in an unexpected way, and it 
was accepted, at first, dubiously. They had become subjects 
of the superman. But the superman begat a city. 

An ancient philosopher declared that man, abiding amidst 
beautiful things, must of necessity become a finer, a better 
man. This because the constant contemplation of beauty 
expands the imagination, purifies the soul and creates higher 
purposes. If Plato was right — and I am sure he was — then 
the coming generations who may live here, must be a superior 
people, with lofty ideals and accordant practices, setting up on 
a high pedestal of desire the achievements that are programed 
in the round of their existence. To habitats such as these 
must come philosophers, poets, artists, and workingmen, too, 
with visions of altruism and of the beautiful, a fixed ambiton. 
The rich will here build mansions ; the lesser rich bungalows 
no less worthy, for the joy of living is not measured by mil- 
lions spent in palaces. 

There are many cities more important and there are some 
very beautiful on this American continent. But there can be 
none lovelier to those who desire lovely places to reside in, 
and where every horizon adds to the picture. Travelers in 
Europe affect to call Southern California the Italy of America. 
But we who call this our home, deride comparisons and scorn 
even the gardens of the Mediterranean with their unhappy 
poor. 



562 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

For about us here, we may see even humble life enjoying 
the luxuries of climate and beauty, alike with the rich and the 
more rich; for it costs little money and little effort to trans- 
form a bare span of soil into a delightful garden equal to those 
that decorate the hills of Sicily. For one thing, Pasadena 
presents no streets of wretchedness, nor sordid poverty, to 
rend the soul or distress the heart. 

Pass through these miles of fine paved avenues with their 
grassy parkings and lawns, always green and well groomed! 
Note the prodigality of flowers and shrubbery in such well- 
ordered profusion. The kingdom of Flora has been ravished 
for rare varieties to add to the symposium of beauty. And 
lining the streets, trees little known outside of California lend 
their grateful shade and form vistas of beauty — the pepper, 
the camphor, the acacia and others equally as picturesque. 

Within these lovely gardens are set the dwellings of men, 
each with its own architectural distinction, no matter whether 
humble bungalow or spacious villa ; for it is the passion of the 
Pasadena builder to give his own touch of personality to the 
home he creates. And it does not take long to produce these 
charming effects in this exuberant climate. A year or two 
perhaps, and the once bare lot assumes the aspect of a real 
garden, with its fascinations of multi-hued flowers, and per- 
golas of drooping roses whose bloom may never cease. Trel- 
lises bear rich floral burdens and sunny gables sustain 
fragrant arabesques of color. It may be the millionaire's 
mansion or the Chinaman's shack; each may sport its graceful 
festoons of purple or white wistaria, or the pergola be a bower 
of glorious Kaiserin, of Henriette, or of any other hundred 
varieties of roses. The lawn is always there, neat and trim, 
a carpet upon whose emerald flowers the gorgeous crimson 
stars of the poinsettia or the flaming scarlet banners of the 
canna. In yonder shaded corner blooms, in an ardent pyra- 
mid, the scarlet-trumpeted hibiscus, hint of far distant isles in 
tropic seas, where dusky-eyed houris chant amorously from 
leafy ambuscade. These are some of the pleasant things that 
greet one in Pasadena. 

And then there is the country outside, where orchards and 
orange groves yet exist, and where sweeping spacious fields 
may yet be seen, in spite of a spreading city's demands. To 
these country highways lead, and tempt the pedestrian to rural 
delights, the joy of living unhampered. Here a skylark's note 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 563 

rises in clarion welcome or the robin bids cheerful sociability. 
Here, too, the sunshine spills its golden beams and fills the air 
with intoxicating vigor ; and the mountains, ranged against a 
torquoise sky, proclaim the rhythmic cadences of a California 
summer. 

Pasadena, the Jewel City in the constellation of Cities 
Beautiful, should be a constant inspiration to the highest in 
civic pride and civic virtue. Let no profane hand drag its 
banners into reproach, or write upon its escutcheons inglo- 
rious records. 

Dollars must not usurp ideals, and dollars must not be the 
highest sum of things when considering public expenditures. 
There is a point beyond which economy may be an economic 
waste and prodigality a cardinal virtue. Would anyone, now, 
replace the Colorado Street bridge with a plainer structure, 
or the Polytechnic School with a cheaper one! Of course 
not! Our public structures must harmonize with the native 
beauties that have been our heritage and delight. A new city 
hall, a library, an auditorium — let them come in time, but not 
without due observance of the beautiful. 

Augustus said he had received Borne in brick and would 
leave it in marble ; so the builders of Pasadena must leave in 
marble — or its equivalent — edifices that will testify to its 
material progress and civic pride. Of all things, let these 
be beautiful to the eye, an appeal to the intellect ! 

Look upon the beauty of the mountains that fringe the 
horizon ; look upon yonder lovely valleys, and upon the tender 
skies above ! Each has its wondrous charm, its splendid fas- 
cination! Compare them with Kashmere; we scorn Kash- 
mere! Compare with the gardens of Samarkand; who knows 
the Indus except in song and story? Scheherazade may have 
disported her loveliness in fragrant groves, in floral retreats ; 
but were they lovelier than the gardens of Oak Knoll, of 
Orange Grove Avenue? Perhaps so, but I have a right to 
doubt it, though harking to the song of Omar. The Falernian 
hills were not lovelier than those of Linda Vista, or of San 
Rafael ; nor the promontories of Lesbos greener. Watch the 
eastern ranges as they disclose themselves against the rising 
sun, ponderous and inspiring silhouettes of opening dawn. 
Note the kaleidoscopic marvels that paint their camoes on the 
skies each hour, until night drops his conquering mantle. Can 
one see these transformations daily and not feel, with Clarence 
Urmy, the lotus of Bagdad in his veins ? 



564 PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 

"The purple shadow of an angel's wing 

Is flung across the range, and softly creeps 
Adown the mountainside; the rocky steeps 
Are blurred with veils of amethyst that fling 
Their filmy folds round barren spots that cling 
To jagged slopes; the yawning canyon keeps 
Fond tryst with dusk, the windless forest sleeps, 
With naught save one faint, long line lingering." 

The resident of Pasadena, having once eaten of the lotus, is 
an heir to good fortune. He may not even care to change his 
habitation for Paradise, though he is getting attuned to it. 
Over its portals may fittingly be written, "Let him who enters 
here leave discontent behind. " Sitting at the feet of this 
modern Aphrodite of the West, whose charms allure, and 
whose loveliness must endure, the Pasadenan may, in patri- 
otic fealty, exclaim : Oh, may thy future be full of accom- 
plishment, may thy history be a record of civic virtues and 
artistic triumphs, and may the dweller herein be a mortal full 
of happiness and content ! 

A Pkognosis 

But of the future ? It may require no prophetic vision to 
see it. Invention and genius, well applied, will confer their 
magic, and we can in our horoscope, discern clearly a rehabili- 
tation that will give to this community a new fame. There 
will be no trolleys nor tracks to impede traffic or mar the 
landscape ; no unsightly poles to create objurgations. A great 
city will fill the valley and the foothills, from Altadena to Los 
Angeles, and there will be one ambition besetting its inhab- 
itants — that it will be the best of all cities ! Noisy trolley 
cars and nerve-wrecking gasoline autos will be replaced with 
a wonderful new motive power vehicle — an invention by a 
genius educated at Throop. A new library, a new Parthenon, 
will rear its classic walls above a grassy Acropolis. Within 
its doors endless stacks of books will lure the reader from far 
and wide, and in it the student will have his cosy corner to 
browse at his content. A city hall of splendid architecture 
will adorn the proper spot and cause the citizen to glow with 
pride at its mention. In one of the parks will be a heroic 
bronze representing, in allegory, the Pioneer and the things 
he wrought. A casino, the forum where civic affairs are dis- 
cussed by the citizens, and where the city band of forty-eight 



PASADENA— HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL 565 

pieces will play each day, will be an accomplished fact — at 
last! Children's playgrounds everywhere; public baths in 
various convenient sections of the city will add to the good 
cheer of its people. And there will be citizens filled with wis- 
dom — the wise men of the town — who will be ready at all times 
to devote their spare time to the betterment of the community 
— men whose highest aim is patriotism and civic pride. Colo- 
rado Street will become the real Via Crucis and Appian Way 
of a better age, and there baazars of trade and the rounds of 
fashion will call the men and women in daily parade — bent 
upon errands of business and display of styles. There will be 
a municipal theater where talent of the highest will tempt 
both wise men and busy women to relaxation and enjoyment 
and fortify them for sterner duties. 

The coming New Zealander (or New Englander) who will 
pause, leaning upon the parapet of the Colorado Street bridge, 
will gaze with eager appreciation upon a city throbbing with 
joyous existence — the epitome of civic problems wrought to 
happy conclusion, and a citizenry filled with purposeful ideals. 
And thus the dreams of the civic idealist will have been here 
accomplished! So mote it be! 




